Podcasts about national oceanic

Lowry Yankwich, a third year student at HLS, speaks with Doug Christel, policy analyst for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Sustainable Fisheries Office. They discuss the approval of the South Fork Wind Project, which is only the second commercial-scale offshore wind project to be approved in federal waters. The project is small but has garnered outsized attention particularly due to its potential impacts on Coxes Ledge, an important fish habitat area. The two discuss possible impacts on fisheries from the South Fork project specifically, and wind development generally, and explore ways in which developers and government agencies are attempting to address and mitigate concerns raised by fishers. They put the South Fork project into perspective and show how it represents a significant milestone in the story of offshore wind development in the U.S. Note: at 34 minutes Doug questions his recollection of the micro-siting diameter for turbines, whether it's 500 feet or meters. He later confirmed it's 500 feet. You can read more about the legal implications of this topic here https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2021/11/the-implications-of-boem-decision-on-the-south-fork-wind-farm/

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:31).Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments Images Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 12-24-21. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of December 27, 2021.  SOUND - ~ 5 sec That's the sound of a Belted Kingfisher at Stroubles Creek in Blacksburg, Va., on December 21, 2021.  The year-end chattering of Virginia Water Radio's favorite bird sets the stage for our annual look-back on Water Radio's year.  We start with a medley of mystery sounds and voices from six episodes in 2021.  Have a listen for about 40 seconds, and see how many you recognize. SOUNDS – ~38 sec If you guessed all of most of those, you're a water-sound world champion! You heard Brimley's Chorus Frog;Virginia Tech graduate Maddy Grupper discussing her research on public trust in water systems;Virginia Tech's siren used for tornado warnings;names of some 2021 Atlantic tropical cyclones;Canvasback ducks; andice on Claytor Lake in Pulaski County, Va. Thanks to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources for permission to use the chorus frog sound; to Lang Elliott for the Canvasback sounds, from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs; to Maddy Grupper for the episode on her research; and to Blacksburg friends for the tropical cyclone name call-outs. We close out 2021 with a two-minute sample of music heard in episodes this year.  Here are excerpts of “Wade in the Water,” by Torrin Hallett; “Racing the Sun,” by the Faux Paws; “All Creatures Were Meant to Be Free,” by Bob Gramann; “John Ashe's Spring,” by New Standard; “The Coming Spring,” by Andrew VanNorstand with vocalist Kailyn Wright; and “On a Ship,” by Kat Mills, with violinist Rachel Handman. Thanks to those musicians for permission to use their music. So long, soon, to 2021, and here's hoping for a safe, sound, and sufficiently hydrated 2022. MUSIC – ~105 sec From “Wade in the Water” - ~18 sec – instrumental. From “Racing the Sun” - ~20 sec – instrumental. From “All Creatures Were Meant to be Free” - ~10 sec – instrumental. From “John Ashe's Spring” - ~13 sec – instrumental. From “The Coming Spring” - ~20 sec – Lyrics: “I went outside, the rain fallin' on the branches bare.   And I smiled, ‘cause I could feel a change in the air.” From “On a Ship” - ~25 sec – Lyrics: “We are riding on a ship.” SHIP'S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close this episode.  In Blacksburg, I'm Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sounds Used and Their Previous 2021 Virginia Water Radio Episodes (Listed in order heard in this episode's audio) The Belted Kingfisher sound was recorded by Virginia Water Radio at Stroubles Creek in Blacksburg, Va., December 21, 2021. The sound of Brimley's Chorus Frog was from “The Calls of Virginia Frogs and Toads” CD, copyright 2008 by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (now the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources) and Lang Elliott/NatureSoundStudio, used with permission.   The CD accompanies A Guide to the Frogs and Toads of Virginia, Special Publication Number 3, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries; as of February 5, 2021, that publication is no longer available at Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources online store, https://www.shopdwr.com/.  For more information, contact the Department at P.O. Box 90778, Henrico, VA 23228-0778; phone: (804) 367-1000 (VTDD); main Web page is https://dwr.virginia.gov/; to send e-mail, visit https://dwr.virginia.gov/contact/.  This sound was used in Episode 563, 2-8-21. Virginia Tech 2020 graduate Maddy Grupper discussed her research on public trust in water systems in Episode 564, 2-15-21. The tornado-warning siren was recorded in Blacksburg, Va., in the early morning of April 28, 2011.  This sound was used in Episode 568, 3-15-21. The call-out of Atlantic tropical cyclone names for the 2021 season were recorded by Blacksburg friends of Virginia Water radio in June 2021.  The voices were sued in Episode 580, 6-7-21. The sounds of Canvasback ducks were sound were from the Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs-Eastern Region CD set, by Lang Elliott with Donald and Lillian Stokes (Time Warner Audio Books, copyright 1997), used with permission of Lang Elliott.  Lang Elliot's work is available online at the “Music of Nature” Web site, online at https://musicofnature.com/.  These sounds were used in Episode 604, 11-22-21. The Claytor Lake ice sound was recorded at the Sloan Creek inlet of the lake, near Draper in Pulaski County, Va., on January 6, 2018. This sound was used in Episode 606, 12-6-21. Musical Selections Used and Their Previous 2021 Virginia Water Radio Episodes (Listed in order heard in this episode's audio) The arrangement of “Wade in the Water” (a traditional hymn) heard in this episode is copyright 2021 by Torrin Hallett, used with permission.  Torrin is a 2018 graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio; a 2020 graduate in Horn Performance from Manhattan School of Music in New York; and a 2021 graduate of the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.  He is currently a graduate student at the Yale School of Music.  More information about Torrin is available online at https://www.facebook.com/torrin.hallett.  Thanks very much to Torrin for composing this arrangement especially for Virginia Water Radio.  This music was used in Episode 566, 3-1-21, water in U.S. civil rights history. “Racing the Sun,” from the 2021 album “The Faux Paws,” is copyright by Great Bear Records, used with permission of Andrew VanNorstrand.  More information about The Faux Paws is available online at https://thefauxpawsmusic.com/.  More information about Great Bear Records is available online at https://www.greatbearmusic.com/.  This music was used in Episode 602, 11-8-21, on photosynthesis, including its connection to climate change. “All Creatures Were Meant to Be Free,” from the 1995 album “Mostly True Songs,” is copyright by Bob Gramann, used with permission.  More information about Bob Gramann is available online at https://www.bobgramann.com/.  This music was used in Episode 561, 1-25-21, on the Northern Harrier. “John Ashe's Spring,” from the 2016 album “Bluegrass,” is copyright by New Standard, used with permission.  The title refers to a spring near Ivy, Virginia (Albemarle County).  More information about New Standard is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com.  This music was used in Episode 576, 5-10-21, an introduction to springs. “The Coming Spring,” from the 2019 album “That We Could Find a Way to Be,” is copyright by Andrew VanNorstrand, used with permission.  More information about Andrew VanNorstrand is available online at https://www.andrewvannorstrand.com/.  Information on accompanying artists on “The Coming Spring” is online at https://andrewvannorstrandmusic.bandcamp.com/track/the-coming-spring.  This music was used in Episode 572, 4-12-21, on warblers and spring bird migration. “On a Ship,” from the 2015 album “Silver,” is copyright by Kat Mills, used with permission.  Accompanying artists on the song are Ida Polys, vocals; Rachel Handman, violin; and Nicholas Polys, banjo.   More information about Kat Mills is available online at http://www.katmills.com/.  This music was used in Episode 602, 11-8-21, on photosynthesis, including its connection to climate change. IMAGESAn Image Sampler from Episodes in 2021 From Episode 561, 1-25-21: Northern Harrier, photographed in southeastern Virginia, January 23, 2021.  Photo by iNaturalist user keyojimbo, made available online at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/68521040(as of 12-27-21) for use under Creative Commons license “Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0.”  Information about this Creative Commons license is available online at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.From Episode 563, 2-8-21: Brimley's Chorus Frog, photographed in Chesapeake, Virginia, February 28, 2019.  Photo by iNaturalist user jkleopfer, made available online at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20834796(as of 2-8-21) for use under Creative Commons license “Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0.”  Information about this Creative Commons license is available online at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.From Episode 580, 6-7-21: Predictions for the 2021 Atlantic tropical storm season.  Graphic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “NOAA Predicts Another Active Atlantic Hurricane Season,” 5/20/21, online at https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-predicts-another-active-atlantic-hurricane-season.From Episode 602, 11-8-21: Diagram explaining carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake by trees and other woody plants during photosynthesis, resulting in carbon storage, or “carbon sequestration,” a key concept in the issue of climate change.  Diagram courtesy of John Seiler, Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation.From Episode 606, 12-6-21: Thin ice on a pond in Heritage Park, Blacksburg, Va., December 9, 2021.SOURCES Please see the episodes mentioned and hyperlinked above under “Audio Notes and Acknowledgments” for sources of information about the topics of the individual episodes. RELATED VIRGINIA WATER RADIO EPISODES All Water Radio episodes are listed by category at the Index link above (http://www.virginiawaterradio.org/p/index.html).  See particularly the “Overall Importance o

For bonuses and to support the show, sign up at www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast   This week is our Christmas special here on the train. First, we've covered Krampus, Christmas killings, and ghost story Christmas traditions. Then, in keeping with our tradition of crazy Christmas episodes, today, we bring you some crazy Christmas disasters! Christmas isn't immune to crazy shit going on, from natural disasters to fires. Not only that, we're giving you guys a pretty good dose of history today. So with that being said, let's get into some crazy Christmas stuff!   While this first topic isn't necessarily a disaster in the usual sense, it definitely caused nothing but problems. And yes, it's a disaster. In 1865 on Christmas Eve, something happened that would change things for many people in this country and still causes grief to this day. While most people in the u.s. were settling down for the night with their families, leaving milk out for Santa, and tucking the kids in for the night, a group of men in Pulaski, Tennessee, were getting together for a very different purpose. Frank McCord, Richard Reed, John Lester, John Kennedy, J. Calvin Jones, and James Crowe were all officers with the Confederacy in the civil war. That night, they got together to form a group inspired at least in part by the then largely defunct Sons of Malta. While it started as a social club, within months, it would turn into one of the most nefarious groups around, the Ku Klux Klan. According to The Cyclopædia of Fraternities (1907), "Beginning in April, 1867, there was a gradual transformation. ...The members had conjured up a veritable Frankenstein. They had played with an engine of power and mystery, though organized on entirely innocent lines, and found themselves overcome by a belief that something must lie behind it all – that there was, after all, a serious purpose, a work for the Klan to do." It borrowed parts of the initiation ceremony from the sons of Malta with the same purpose: "ludicrous initiations, the baffling of public curiosity, and the amusement for members were the only objects of the Klan," according to Albert Stevens in 1907. In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general organizing convention. They established what they called an "Invisible Empire of the South." Leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or "grand wizard," of the Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans, and grand cyclops. The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the beginning of the second phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson's relatively lenient Reconstruction policies from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts. Each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted "equal protection" of the Constitution to formerly enslaved people and enacted universal male suffrage. From 1867 onward, Black participation in public life in the South became one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction. Black people won elections to southern state governments and even the U.S. Congress. For its part, the Ku Klux Klan dedicated itself to an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters (both Black and white) to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South. They were joined in this struggle by similar organizations such as the Knights of the White Camelia (launched in Louisiana in 1867) and the White Brotherhood. At least 10 percent of the Black legislators elected during the 1867-1868 constitutional conventions became victims of violence during Reconstruction, including seven who were killed. White Republicans (derided as "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags") and Black institutions such as schools and churches—symbols of Black autonomy—were also targets for Klan attacks. By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. The Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership even at its height. Local Klan members, often wearing masks and dressed in the organization's signature long white robes and hoods, usually carried out their attacks at night. They acted on their own but supported the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where Black people were a minority or a slight majority of the population and were relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871, 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight Black prisoners. Though Democratic leaders would later attribute Ku Klux Klan violence to poorer southern white people, the organization's membership crossed class lines, from small farmers and laborers to planters, lawyers, merchants, physicians, and ministers. In the regions where most Klan activity took place, local law enforcement officials either belonged to the Klan or declined to act against it. Even those who arrested Klansmen found it difficult to find witnesses willing to testify against them.    Other leading white citizens in the South declined to speak out against the group's actions, giving them implicit approval. After 1870, Republican state governments in the South turned to Congress for help, resulting in three Enforcement Acts, the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.   For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. In addition, the act authorized the president to suspend the habeas corpus, arrest accused individuals without charge, and send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. For those of us dummies that may not know, a "writ of habeas corpus" (which literally means to "produce the body") is a court order demanding that a public official (such as a warden) deliver an imprisoned individual to the court and show a valid reason for that person's detention. The procedure provides a means for prison inmates or others acting on their behalf to dispute the legal basis for confinement.   This expansion of federal authority–which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South–outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again.   Now, this was just the first version of the Klan. A second version started up in the early 1900s and later on another revival which is the current iteration of the Klan. We're not going to go into the later versions of the Klan because well…. Fuck 'em! We've already given them too much air time! But… This most definitely qualifies as a Christmas disaster.   Next up, we have a couple natural disasters.    First up, Cyclone Tracy. Cyclone Tracy has been described as the most significant tropical cyclone in Australia's history, and it changed how we viewed the threat of tropical cyclones to northern Australia.   Five days before Christmas 1974, satellite images showed a tropical depression in the Arafura Sea, 700 kilometers (or almost 435 miles for us Americans) northeast of Darwin.   The following day the Tropical Cyclone Warning Center in Darwin warned that a cyclone had formed and gave it the name Tracy. Cyclone Tracy was moving southwest at this stage, but as it passed the northwest of Bathurst Island on December 23, it slowed down and changed course.   That night, it rounded Cape Fourcroy and began moving southeast, with Darwin directly in its path.   The first warning that Darwin was under threat came at 12:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve when a top-priority flash cyclone warning was issued advising people that Cyclone Tracy was expected to make landfall early Christmas morning.   Despite 12 hours' warning of the cyclone's impending arrival, it fell mainly on deaf ears.   Residents were complacent after a near-miss from Cyclone Selma a few weeks before and distracted by the festive season.   Indeed in the preceding decade, the Bureau of Meteorology had identified 25 cyclones in Northern Territory waters, but few had caused much damage. Severe Tropical Cyclone Tracy was a small but intense system at landfall.   The radius of the galeforce winds extended only 50 kilometers from the eye of the cyclone, making it one of the most miniature tropical cyclones on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).   Records show that at least six tropical cyclones had severely impacted Darwin before Tracy.   The worst of these was in January 1897 when a "disastrous hurricane" nearly destroyed the settlement, and 28 people died.   However, unlike Tracy, it is thought this cyclone did not directly pass over Darwin.   And while Tracy was reported as a category four cyclone, some meteorologists today believe it may have been a category five shortly before it made landfall.   At midnight on Christmas Day, wind gusts greater than 100 kilometers or over 62 miles per hour began to be recorded.   The cyclone's center reached East Point at 3:15 a.m. and landed just north of Fannie Bay at 3:30 a.m.   Tracy was so strong it bent a railway signal tower in half.    The city was devastated by the cyclone. At least 90 percent of homes in Darwin were demolished or badly damaged. Forty-five vessels in the harbor were wrecked or damaged.   In addition to the 65 people who died, 145 were admitted to the hospital with serious injuries.   Vegetation was damaged up to 80 kilometers away from the coast, and Darwin felt eerily quiet due to the lack of insect and birdlife.   Within a week after the cyclone hit, more than 30,000 Darwin residents had been evacuated by air or road. That's more than two-thirds of the population at that time.   Cyclone Tracy remains one of Australia's most significant disasters.   As Murphy wrote 10 years after the cyclone: "The impact of Cyclone Tracy has reached far beyond the limits of Darwin itself. All along the tropical coasts of northern Australia and beyond a new cyclone awareness has emerged."   Merry fucking Christmas! Damn, that sucks. The information in this section came from an article on abc.net.au   Next up, we are going way back. The Christmas Flood of 1717 resulted from a northwesterly storm, which hit the coastal area of the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia on Christmas night of 1717. During the night of Christmas, 1717, the coastal regions of the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia were hit by a severe north-western storm. It is estimated that 14,000 people died. It was the worst flood for four centuries and the last significant flood to hit the north of the Netherlands.   In the countryside to the north of the Netherlands, the water level rose up to a few meters. The city of Groningen rose up to a few feet. In the province of Groningen, villages that were situated directly behind the dikes were nearly swept away. Action had to be taken against looters who robbed houses and farms under the fraudulent act of rescuing the flood victims. In total, the flood caused 2,276 casualties in Groningen. 1,455 homes were either destroyed or suffered extensive damage. Most livestock was lost.   The water also poured into Amsterdam and Haarlem and the areas around Dokkum and Stavoren. Over 150 people died in Friesland alone. In addition, large sections of Northern Holland were left underwater and the area around Zwolle and Kampen. In these areas, the flood only caused material damage. In Vlieland, however, the sea poured over the dunes, almost entirely sweeping away the already-damaged village of West-Vlieland.   We also found this report from a German website. It's been translated, so our apologies if it's wonky.    "According to tradition, several days before Christmas, it had blown strong and sustained from the southwest. Shortly after sunset on Christmas Eve, the wind suddenly turned from west to northwest and eased a little. The majority of the residents went to bed unconcerned, because currently was half moon and the next regular flood would not occur until 7 a.m. At the time when the tide was supposed to have been low for a long time, however, a drop in the water level could not be determined. Allegedly between 1 and 2 a.m. the storm began to revive violently accompanied by lightning and thunder. Between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning the water reached the top of the dike. The current and waves caused the dike caps to break, so that the tide rolled over the dike into the flat land with a loud roar of thunder. Many only had time to save themselves in the dark on the floor under the roof. Most of the time there was not even time to take clothes, drinking water and some food with you. Numerous houses could not withstand the rising water and the current. In the higher and higher water and the increasing current, windows were Doors and entire walls dented. Allegedly the hurricane and the storm surge raged against the coast for three full days, so that it was not until December 28 that the water fell so far that one could come to the aid of one's neighbors with simply built "boats." In many places, the dykes had been razed to the ground, which meant that in lower-lying areas, every regular flood caused renewed flooding. At the places where the dykes were broken, deep valleys, some of which were large, formed. In many places where the dike is led around in a semi-arch, these walls, also known as pools or bracken, are still visible and testify to the force of the water. At that time, many people are said to have believed that the march was forever lost. In the low-lying areas, the water was later covered with ice floes, sometimes held up for months. Up until the summer months, bodies were said to have been found repeatedly during the clean-up work on the alluvial piles of straw and in the trenches. Many people who survived the flood later fell victim to so-called marching fever. New storm surges in the following years ruined the efforts for the first time to get the dike back into a defensible condition, and many houses, which were initially only damaged, have now been completely destroyed. Numerous small owners left the country so that the Hanover government even issued a ban on emigration."   Looks like the Netherlands got a proper Christmas fucking as well! Some towns were so severely destroyed that nothing was left, and they simply ceased to exist. Damn.    Cyclones and floods… What else does mother nature have for us? Well, how's about an earthquake! On Friday, December 26, 2003, at 5:26 a.m., Bam city in Southeastern Iran was jolted by an earthquake registering a 6.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. This was the result of the strike-slip motion of the Bam fault, which runs through this area. The earthquake's epicenter was determined to be approximately six miles southwest of the city. Three more significant aftershocks and many smaller aftershocks were also recorded, the last of which occurred over a month after the main earthquake. To date, official death tolls have 26,271 fatalities, 9000 injured, and 525 still missing. The city of Bam is one of Iran's most ancient cities, dating back to 224A.D. Latest reports and damage estimates are approaching the area of $1.9 billion. A United Nations report estimated that about 90% of the city's buildings were 60%-100% damaged, while the remaining buildings were between 30%-60% damaged. The crazy part about the whole thing… The quake only lasted for about 8 seconds.   Now I know what you're thinking… That's not Christmas… Well, there spanky, the night of the 25th, Christmas, people started to feel minor tremors that would preface the quake, so fuck you, it counts.   We have one more natural disaster for you guys, and this one most of you guys probably remember. And this one was another that started last Christmas night and rolled into the 26th, also known as boxing day. So we're talking about the Boxing Day Tsunami and the Indian ocean earthquake in 2004.    A 9.1-magnitude earthquake—one of the largest ever recorded—ripped through an undersea fault in the Indian Ocean, propelling a massive column of water toward unsuspecting shores. The Boxing Day tsunami would be the deadliest in recorded history, taking a staggering 230,000 lives in a matter of hours.   The city of Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra was closest to the powerful earthquake's epicenter, and the first waves arrived in just 20 minutes. It's nearly impossible to imagine the 100-foot roiling mountain of water that engulfed the coastal city of 320,000, instantly killing more than 100,000 men, women, and children. Buildings folded like houses of cards, trees, and cars were swept up in the oil-black rapids, and virtually no one caught in the deluge survived.   Thailand was next. With waves traveling 500 mph across the Indian Ocean, the tsunami hit the coastal provinces of Phang Nga and Phuket an hour and a half later. Despite the time-lapse, locals and tourists were utterly unaware of the imminent destruction. Curious beachgoers even wandered out among the oddly receding waves, only to be chased down by a churning wall of water. The death toll in Thailand was nearly 5,400, including 2,000 foreign tourists.   An hour later, on the opposite side of the Indian Ocean, the waves struck the southeastern coast of India near the city of Chennai, pushing debris-choked water kilometers inland and killing more than 10,000 people, primarily women and children, since many of the men were out fishing. But some of the worst devastations were reserved for the island nation of Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people were swept away by the waves and hundreds of thousands left homeless.   As proof of the record-breaking strength of the tsunami, the last victims of the Boxing Day disaster perished nearly eight hours later when swelling seas and rogue waves caught swimmers by surprise in South Africa, 5,000 miles from the quake's epicenter.   Vasily Titov is a tsunami researcher and forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Tsunami Research. He credits the unsparing destructiveness of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the raw power of the earthquake that spawned it. The quake originated in a so-called megathrust fault, where heavy oceanic plates subduct beneath lighter continental plates.    "They are the largest faults in the world and they're all underwater," says Titov.   The 2004 quake ruptured a 900-mile stretch along the Indian and Australian plates 31 miles below the ocean floor. Rather than delivering one violent jolt, the earthquake lasted an unrelenting 10 minutes, releasing as much pent-up power as several thousand atomic bombs.   In the process, massive segments of the ocean floor were forced an estimated 30 or 40 meters (up to 130 feet) upward. The effect was like dropping the world's most giant pebble in the Indian Ocean with ripples the size of mountains extending out in all directions.   Titov emphasizes that tsunamis look nothing like the giant surfing break-style waves that many imagine.   "It's a wave, but from the observer's standpoint, you wouldn't recognize it as a wave," Titov says. "It's more like the ocean turns into a white water river and floods everything in its path."   Once caught in the raging waters, the debris will finish the job if the currents don't pull you under.   "In earthquakes, a certain number of people die but many more are injured. It's completely reversed with tsunamis," says Titov. "Almost no injuries, because it's such a difficult disaster to survive."   Holy fuck… That's insane!   Well, there are some crazy natural disasters gifted to us by mother nature. So now let's take a look at some man-made disasters… And there are some bad ones.    First up is the 1953 train wreck on Christmas Eve in New Zealand. So this is actually a mix of mother nature fucking people and a man-made structure failing. This event is also referred to as the Tangiwai disaster. The weather on Christmas Eve was fine, and with little recent rain, no one suspected flooding in the Whangaehu River. The river appeared normal when a goods train crossed the bridge around 7 p.m. What transformed the situation was the sudden release of approximately 2 million cubic meters of water from the crater lake of nearby Mt Ruapehu. A 6-meter-high wave containing water, ice, mud, and rocks surged, tsunami-like, down the Whangaehu River. Sometime between 10.10 and 10.15 p.m., this lahar struck the concrete pylons of the Tangiwai railway bridge.   Traveling at approximately 65 km per hour, locomotive Ka 949 and its train of nine carriages and two vans reached the severely weakened bridge at 10.21 p.m. As the bridge buckled beneath its weight, the engine plunged into the river, taking all five second-class carriages with it. The torrent force destroyed four of these carriages – those inside had little chance of survival.   The leading first-class carriage, Car Z, teetered on the edge of the ruined bridge for a few minutes before breaking free from the remaining three carriages and toppling into the river. It rolled downstream before coming to rest on a bank as the water level fell. Remarkably, 21 of the 22 passengers in this carriage survived. Evidence suggested that the locomotive driver, Charles Parker, had applied the emergency brakes some 200 m from the bridge, which prevented the last three carriages from ending up in the river and saved many lives. Even still, 151 of the 285 passengers and crew died that night in the crash.   This information was taken from nzhistory.gov.    Next up is the Italian Hall disaster.    Before it was called Calumet, the area was known as Red Jacket. And for many, it seemed to be ground zero for the sprawling copper mining operations that absorbed wave after wave of immigrants into the Upper Peninsula.   Red Jacket itself was a company town for the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, a large firm that in the 1870s was known as the world's largest copper producer. For a time, C&H had the world's deepest copper mines.   But the company wasn't immune from the organized labor push that swept across the Keweenaw Peninsula and other parts of the U.P. in 1913. Miners in Montana and Colorado had unionized, and in July of that year, the Western Federation of Miners called a strike against all Copper Country mines. According to a mining journal published that year, they were pushing for a $3 daily wage, 8-hour days, safer working conditions, and representation.   "The strike took place in a very complicated time in American history," said Jo Holt, a historian with the National Park Service's Keweenaw National Historical Park. "We had all these different things coming together. An increasingly industrialized country was grappling with worker's rights, gender issues, and immigration. We were moving from a gilded age into a progressive era, and recognizing the voice of labor.   "We see this event happen in the midst of that struggle."   "The reason it resonates today is we are still having these conversations. How do we create a just economy that functions for everybody? ... We are still, almost hundred and 10 years later, in the midst of these conversations."   As the strike wore into fall and the holiday season, a women's auxiliary group to the WFM organized a Christmas Eve party for the miners' families at the Italian Benevolent Society building, better known as the Italian Hall.   It was a big, boisterous affair, researchers have said. The multi-story hall was packed, with more than 600 people inside at one point. Children were watching a play and receiving gifts. Organizers later said the crowd was so large that it was hard to track who was coming in the door.   When the false cry of "Fire!" went up, pandemonium reached the sole stairway leading down to the street.   "What happened is when people panicked, they tried to get out through the stairwell," Holt said. "Someone tripped or people started to fall, and that's what created the bottleneck. It was just people falling on top of each other."   The aftermath was horrifying. As the dead were pulled from the pile in the stairwell, the bodies were carried to the town hall, which turned into a makeshift morgue. Some families lost more than one child. Other children were orphaned when their parents died.   One black and white photo in the Michigan Technological University Archives shows rows of what looks like sleeping children lying side-by-side. Their eyes are closed. Their faces were unmarred. The caption reads: "Christmas Eve in the Morgue."   After the dead were buried, some families moved away. Others stayed and kept supporting the strike, which ended the following spring.   Rumors emerged later that the Italian Hall's doors were designed to open inward, preventing the panicked crowd from pushing them outward to the street. Those were debunked, along with the suggestion in Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre" song that mining company thugs were holding the doors shut from the outside that night.   Damn… Mostly kids. On Christmas. That's a tough one.   Here's another touchy one. A race riot erupted in Mayfield, Kentucky, just before Christmas 1896. Although slavery in the U.S. ended after the Civil War, the Reconstruction period and beyond was a dangerous time to be black. Things were awful for non-whites in the former Confederacy, amongst which Kentucky was especially bad for racial violence. In December 1896, white vigilantes lynched two black men within 24 hours of each other between the 21st and 22nd, one for a minor disagreement with a white man and the other, Jim Stone, for alleged rape. A note attached to Stone's swinging corpse warned black residents to get out of town.   In response to this unambiguous threat, the local African-American population armed themselves. Rumors spread amongst the town's white people that 250 men were marching on the city, and a state of emergency was called. The whites mobilized, black stores were vandalized, and fighting broke out between the two sides on December 23. In the event, three people were killed, including Will Suet, a black teenager who had just got off the train to spend Christmas with his family. It was all over on Christmas Eve, and a few days later, an uneasy truce between the races was called.   Ugh! Y'all know what time it is? That's right, it's time for some quick hitters.   Many of us enjoy the Christmas period by going to the theatre or watching a movie. In December 1903, Chicago residents were eager to do just that at the brand-new Iroquois Theatre, which had been officially opened only in October that year. 1700 people in all crammed themselves in to see the zany, family-friendly musical comedy, Mr. Bluebeard. But just as the wait was over and the show started, a single spark from a stage light lit the surrounding drapery. The show's star, Eddie Foy, tried to keep things together as Iroquois employees struggled to put the curtains out in vain.   However, even the spectacle of a Windy City-native in drag couldn't stop the terrified crowd stampeding for the few exits. These, preposterously, were concealed by curtains and utterly inadequate in number. When the actors opened their own exit door to escape, a gust of wind sent a fireball through the crowded theatre, meaning that hundreds died before the fire service was even called. 585 people died, either suffocated, burned alive, or crushed. The scene was described in a 1904 account as "worse than that pictured in the mind of Dante in his vision of the inferno". Next up, the politics behind this ghastly event are pretty complicated – one Mexican lecturer described the massacre as "the most complicated case in Mexico" – but here's an inadequate summary. The small and impoverished village of Acteal, Mexico, was home to Las Abejas (the bees'), a religious collective that sympathized with a rebel group opposing the Mexican government. Thus, on December 22, 1997, members of the then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party crept down the steep hill slopes above the village. They chose their moment to attack carefully as people gathered at a prayer meeting when they finally slunk into Acteal.   Over the next few hours, assassins armed with guns executed 45 innocent people in cold blood. Amongst the dead were 21 women, some of whom were pregnant, and 15 children. Worst of all, investigations into this cowardly act seem to implicate the government itself. Soldiers garrisoned nearby did not intervene, despite being within earshot of the gunfire and horrified screams. In addition, there was evidence of the crime scene being tampered with by local police and government officials. Though some people have been convicted, there are suspicions that they were framed and that the real culprits remain at large.   -Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring… except the Soviet Union. The Marxist-Leninist Khalq and Parcham parties had ousted the Afghan president in April 1978. Still, communism was so unpopular in Afghanistan that the mujahideen succeeded in toppling them just over a year later. So Khalq and Parcham turned to the Soviet Union for help, and on Christmas Eve that year, they obliged by sending 30,000 troops across the border into Afghanistan by the cover of darkness. Bloody fighting ensued, and soon the Soviet Union had control of the major cities.   The Soviets stayed for nine years, at which time the mujahideen, backed by foreign support and weapons, waged a brutal guerrilla campaign against the invaders. In turn, captured mujahideen were executed, and entire villages and agricultural areas were razed to the ground. When the Soviets finally withdrew in February 1989, over 1 million civilians and almost 125,000 soldiers from both sides were killed. From the turmoil after the Afghan-Soviet War emerged, the Taliban, installed by neighboring Pakistan, and with them Osama bin Laden. This indeed was a black Christmas for the world.   -How about another race riot… No? Well, here you go anyway. Although, this one may be more fucked up. The Agana Race Riot saw black and white US Marines fight it out from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, 1944. Guam was host to both black and white US Marines in 1944. But instead of fighting the enemy, the white troops elected to turn on the all-black Marine 25th Depot Company. First, the white Marines would stop their fellow soldiers from entering Agana, pelt them with rocks, and shout racist obscenities at them. Then, on Christmas Eve 1944, 9 members of the 25th on official leave were seen talking to local women, and white Marines opened fire on them. Then, on Christmas Day, 2 black soldiers were shot dead by drunken white Marines in separate incidents.   Guam's white Marines were decidedly short on festive cheer and goodwill to all men. Not content with these murders, a white mob attacked an African-American depot on Boxing Day, and a white soldier sustained an injury when the 25th returned fire. Sick of their treatment by their fellow soldiers, 40 black Marines gave chase to the retreating mob in a jeep, but further violence was prevented by a roadblock. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, the black soldiers were charged with unlawful assembly, rioting, and attempted murder, while the white soldiers were left to nurse their aching heads.   One more major one for you guys, and then we'll leave on a kind of happier note. This one's kind of rough. Be warned.    In late December 2008 and into January 2009, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) brutally killed more than 865 civilians and abducted at least 160 children in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). LRA combatants hacked their victims to death with machetes or axes or crushed their skulls with clubs and heavy sticks. In some of the places where they attacked, few were left alive.   The worst attacks happened 48 hours over Christmas in locations some 160 miles apart in the Daruma, Duru, and Faradje areas of the Haut-Uele district of northern Congo. The LRA waited until the time of Christmas festivities on December 24 and 25 to carry out their devastating attacks, apparently choosing a moment when they would find the maximum number of people altogether. The killings occurred in the Congo and parts of southern Sudan, where similar weapons and tactics were used.   The Christmas massacres in Congo are part of a longstanding practice of horrific atrocities and abuse by the LRA. Before shifting its operations to the Congo in 2006, the LRA was based in Uganda and southern Sudan, where LRA combatants also killed, raped, and abducted thousands of civilians. When the LRA moved to Congo, its combatants initially refrained from targeting Congolese people. Still, in September 2008, the LRA began its first wave of attacks, apparently to punish local communities who had helped LRA defectors to escape. The first wave of attacks in September, together with the Christmas massacres, has led to the deaths of over 1,033 civilians and the abduction of at least 476 children.   LRA killings have not stopped since the Christmas massacres. Human Rights Watch receives regular reports of murders and abductions by the LRA, keeping civilians living in terror. According to the United Nations, over 140,000 people have fled their homes since late December 2008 to seek safety elsewhere. New attacks and the flight of civilians are reported weekly. People are frightened to gather together in some areas, believing that the LRA may choose these moments to strike, as they did with such devastating efficiency over Christmas.   Even by LRA standards, the Christmas massacres in the Congo were ruthless. LRA combatants struck quickly and quietly, surrounding their victims as they ate their Christmas meal in Batande village or gathered for a Christmas day concert in Faradje. In Mabando village, the LRA sought to maximize the death toll by luring their victims to a central place, playing the radio, and forcing their victims to sing songs and call for others to come to join the party. In most attacks, they tied up their victims, stripped them of their clothes, raped the women and girls, and then killed their victims by crushing their skulls. In two cases, the attackers tried to kill three-year-old toddlers by twisting off their heads. The few villagers who survived often did so because their assailants thought they were dead.   Yeah...so there's that. We could go much deeper into this incident, but we think you get the point.    We'll leave you with a story that is pretty bizarre when you stop and think about it. But we'll leave you with this story of an unlikely Christmas get-together. This is the story of the Christmas truce.    British machine gunner Bruce Bairnsfather, later a prominent cartoonist, wrote about it in his memoirs. Like most of his fellow infantrymen of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, he was spending the holiday eve shivering in the muck, trying to keep warm. He had spent a good part of the past few months fighting the Germans. And now, in a part of Belgium called Bois de Ploegsteert, he was crouched in a trench that stretched just three feet deep by three feet wide, his days and nights marked by an endless cycle of sleeplessness and fear, stale biscuits and cigarettes too wet to light.   "Here I was, in this horrible clay cavity," Bairnsfather wrote, "…miles and miles from home. Cold, wet through and covered with mud." There didn't "seem the slightest chance of leaving—except in an ambulance."   At about 10 p.m., Bairnsfather noticed a noise. "I listened," he recalled. "Away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices." He turned to a fellow soldier in his trench and said, "Do you hear the Boches [Germans] kicking up that racket over there?"   Yes," came the reply. "They've been at it some time!"   The Germans were singing carols, as it was Christmas Eve. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. "Suddenly," Bairnsfather recalled, "we heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen. The shout came again." The voice was from an enemy soldier, speaking in English with a strong German accent. He was saying, "Come over here."   One of the British sergeants answered: "You come half-way. I come half-way."   In the years to come, what happened next would stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches and meet in the barbed-wire-filled "No Man's Land" that separated the armies. Typically, the British and Germans communicated across No Man's Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, tobacco, and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night. Bairnsfather could not believe his eyes. "Here they were—the actual, practical soldiers of the German army. There was not an atom of hate on either side."   And it wasn't confined to that one battlefield. Starting on Christmas Eve, small pockets of French, German, Belgian, and British troops held impromptu cease-fires across the Western Front, with reports of some on the Eastern Front as well. Some accounts suggest a few of these unofficial truces remained in effect for days.   Descriptions of the Christmas Truce appear in numerous diaries and letters of the time. One British soldier, a rifleman, named J. Reading, wrote a letter home to his wife describing his holiday experience in 1914: "My company happened to be in the firing line on Christmas eve, and it was my turn…to go into a ruined house and remain there until 6:30 on Christmas morning. During the early part of the morning the Germans started singing and shouting, all in good English. They shouted out: 'Are you the Rifle Brigade; have you a spare bottle; if so we will come halfway and you come the other half.'"   "Later on in the day they came towards us," Reading described. "And our chaps went out to meet them…I shook hands with some of them, and they gave us cigarettes and cigars. We did not fire that day, and everything was so quiet it seemed like a dream."   Another British soldier, named John Ferguson, recalled it this way: "Here we were laughing and chatting to men whom only a few hours before we were trying to kill!"   Other diaries and letters describe German soldiers using candles to light Christmas trees around their trenches. One German infantryman described how a British soldier set up a makeshift barbershop, charging Germans a few cigarettes each for a haircut. Other accounts describe vivid scenes of men helping enemy soldiers collect their dead, of which there was plenty.   One British fighter named Ernie Williams later described in an interview his recollection of some makeshift soccer play on what turned out to be an icy pitch: "The ball appeared from somewhere, I don't know where... They made up some goals and one fellow went in goal and then it was just a general kick-about. I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part."   German Lieutenant Kurt Zehmisch of the 134 Saxons Infantry, a schoolteacher who spoke both English and German, described a pick-up soccer game in his diary, which was discovered in an attic near Leipzig in 1999, written in an archaic German form of shorthand. "Eventually the English brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon, a lively game ensued," he wrote. "How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time."   So much more can be said about this event, but that seems like an excellent place to leave off this Christmas episode! And yes, when you really do stop and think about it… That's a pretty crazy yet fantastic thing.   Greatest disaster movies of all time   https://www.ranker.com/crowdranked-list/the-greatest-disaster-movies-of-all-time

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update Saturday, December 18th and Sunday, December 19th. The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday appears to be pretty similar for both days. According to the National Weather Service there will be a high of 34 degrees with mostly sunny skies in the Cedar Rapids area on Saturday. Then it will be sunny with a high of 34 degrees on Sunday. The main difference looks to be with the low temperatures, with Sunday night looking to trend a bit warmer, with a predicted low of 25 degrees. A student brought a loaded gun to McKinley STEAM Academy on Friday, police said, when schools and law enforcement officials already were on high alert because of a nationwide social media post Thousands of Eastern Iowa students stayed home from school Friday after an anonymous TikTok social media post declared it to be “American School Shooting Day.” Law enforcement and education officials throughout Iowa said they were monitoring but knew of no credible threats of school violence in the state. One male student, whose name and age were not disclosed by authorities, faces a charge of carrying a firearm on school grounds, a Class D felony, and taken to the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center, police said. Drew Blahnik, 34, for the stabbing of Chris Bagley, 31, of Walker, was sentenced during the Friday hearing to 57 years in prison, the maximum available to the court. Blahnik, convicted by a Linn County jury in July, must serve 70 percent of that time, or 35 years on the murder sentence, before being eligible for parole. Judge Christopher Bruns, in his ruling, said the testimony and evidence at trial established that Andrew Shaw, a Cedar Rapids drug dealer who Bagley had previously robbed and assaulted, wanted Bagley dead. Credible evidence showed that Shaw, who has not been charged in Bagley's death, asked Blahnik to kill Bagley. Shaw is currently serving time on drug charges. Ending a 31-year relationship that has brought hundreds of high school athletes and their fans annually to Cedar Rapids, the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union announced Friday it was moving its state high school volleyball tournament to the new Xtream Arena in Coralville instead. The championship, last played in November in the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in downtown Cedar Rapids, has an estimated economic impact of $2 million in the community. Xtream Arena opened in September 2020. The arena has a capacity of 5,100 spectators plus additional floor seating, and is connected to the five-court, 53,000-square-foot GreenState Family Fieldhouse. The arena is home to the University of Iowa volleyball team and the Iowa Heartlanders ECHL hockey team. A dozen tornadoes struck Iowa in Wednesday's storms, the National Weather Service has confirmed — double the number of December tornadoes the state saw in the last seven decades. For some context for how rare this storm was: The most active month historically in Iowa for tornadoes is June, with 810 tornadoes and 22 related deaths recorded since 1950, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. In comparison, in that same time period, Iowa had seen only six tornadoes in December — until this week. Looking to find something new to eat? Never miss a bite of the tastiest local food news by signing up for our free text alerts. Text CHEW to (319) 257-2674 for inside scoops from Gazette food writer Elijah Decious. Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what's the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support this podcast

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:17).Sections below are the following: Transcript of Audio Audio Notes and Acknowledgments ImagesExtra Information Sources Related Water Radio Episodes For Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 11-26-21. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of November 29, 2021.  This episode is part of a series this year of winter-related episodes. MUSIC – ~10 sec – instrumental. That excerpt of “Mid-winter Etude,” by Timothy Seaman of Williamsburg, Va., opens our annual episode on winter preparedness.  This coincides with Virginia Winter Weather Awareness Week, which is being observed this year from November 29 to December 3, according to the Wakefield, Va., National Weather Service office. In 2021, winter astronomically begins in Virginia on December 21 at 10:59 a.m.  That's the Eastern Standard time of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, when that hemisphere is at its maximum annual tilt away from the sun. At its beginning, middle, or end, winter can bring cold temperatures, hazardous roads, power outages, and fire hazards.  To help you be prepared, here are 10 tips compiled from information provided by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.1. Avoid traveling in winter-storm conditions if you can. If you must travel, get road conditions from the Virginia 511 telephone system, Web site, or app.   And have an emergency kit for your vehicle, including jumper cables, water, non-perishable food, blankets, a flashlight, and other items.2. Have battery-powered sources of lighting and information, particularly weather information, along with enough batteries to last through a power outage of several days.  Whenever possible, use flashlights and not candles during power outages.  If you do use candles, put them in safe holders away from anything combustible, and don't leave a burning candle unattended.3.  Make a family emergency plan that covers sheltering; evacuation from your area; escape from a home fire; emergency meeting places; communications; a supply of food, water, and medications; and other factors specific to your circumstances; and practice your plan. 4.  Get fireplaces, wood stoves, and chimneys inspected and cleaned.5.  Install a smoke detector in every bedroom and on every floor level, test them monthly, and replace the batteries at least annually. 6.  Install a carbon monoxide detector in your home and check or replace the battery every six months.7.  If you use space heaters, make sure they'll switch off automatically if the heater falls over; plug them into wall outlets, not extension cords; keep them at least three feet from combustible objects; don't leave heaters unattended; and check for cracked or damaged wires or plugs. 8.  Generators, camp stoves, and other devices that burn gasoline or charcoal should be used outdoors only.9.  Learn where to shut off water valves in case a pipe bursts. And 10.  Be careful of overexertion during snow shoveling. More information on preparing for winter weather, fires, and other emergencies is available online from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, at vaemergency.gov.Next time the forecast calls for snow, freezing rain, or other wintry weather, here's hoping that you can stay warm, dry, and safe.Thanks to Timothy Seaman for permission to use this week's music, and we close with about 25 more seconds of “Mid-winter Etude.”  MUSIC – ~28 sec – instrumental. SHIP'S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Ben Cosgrove for his version of “Shenandoah” to open and close this episode.  In Blacksburg, I'm Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Midwinter Etude,” from the 1996 album “Incarnation,” is copyright by Timothy Seaman and Pine Wind Music, used with permission.  More information about Mr. Seaman is available online at http://timothyseaman.com/en/.  This music was used previously by Virginia Water Radio in Episode 561, 1-25-21. Click here if you'd like to hear the full version (2 min./22 sec.) of the “Shenandoah” arrangement/performance by Ben Cosgrove that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Cosgrove is available online at http://www.bencosgrove.com.IMAGESSnow and ice on a seasonal pond at Heritage Park in Blacksburg, Va., December 26, 2020.Snow along Toms Creek at Heritage Park in Blacksburg, Va., December 26, 2020.Ice hanging from tree twigs at Heritage Park in Blacksburg, Va., February 20, 2021.EXTRA INFORMATION ABOUT WINTER WEATHER PREPAREDNESS AND FIRE SAFETY On Winter Weather Preparedness The following information is quoted from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), “Winter Weather,” online at https://www.vaemergency.gov/winter-weather/, accessed 11/29/21.Winter storms can range from freezing rain or ice, to a few hours of moderate snowfall, to a blizzard that lasts for several days.  Many winter storms are accompanied by dangerously low temperatures, power outages and unpredictable road conditions.  Before, during, and after a winter storm, roads and walkways may become extremely dangerous or impassable.  Access to critical community services such as public transportation, child care, healthcare providers and schools may be limited.  Preparing your home, car and family before cold weather and a winter storm arrives is critical. Overview for Dealing with a Winter Storm*During a winter storm, stay off the roads as much as possible and only drive when absolutely necessary.  Always give snow plows the right of way. *Never use a generator, grill, camp stove or gasoline, propane, natural gas or charcoal burning device inside your home, garage, basement, crawlspace or any other partially enclosed area. *Snow shoveling is a known trigger for heart attacks!  Always avoid overexertion when shoveling. *When severe weather occurs, plan to check on elderly or disabled neighbors and relatives. *If you must travel, know road conditions before you leave home.  Visit 511Virginia.org or call 511 for road condition updates. *Protect yourself from frostbite!  Hands, feet and face are the most commonly affected areas so wear a hat, mittens (which are warmer than gloves) and cover your mouth with a scarf to reduce heat loss. *Keep dry!  Change out of wet clothing frequently to prevent a loss of body heat. *Wear several layers of loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing rather than one layer or heavy clothing.Prepare Your Home *Make sure your home is properly insulated. *Check the weather stripping around your windows and doors. *Learn how to shut off water valves in case a pipe bursts. *Have additional heat sources on hand in case of a power outages. *Keep a fire extinguisher accessible. *Replace the batteries in your carbon monoxide detector annually. Prepare Your Car *Batteries lose power as temperatures drop, be sure to have yours tested. *Check your car's antifreeze level. *Have your radiator system serviced. *Replace your car's windshield wiper fluid with a wintertime mix. *Proactively replace your car's worn tires and wiper blades. *To help with visibility, clean [snow or ice] off your car entirely, including your trunk, roof, windows and headlights. Did You Know?*Dehydration can make you more susceptible to hypothermia.*If it's too cold for you, it's too cold for your pet!  Don't leave pets outside for prolonged periods of time and have plenty of fresh, unfrozen water on hand.*Each year, snow, sleet, slush and/or ice on the road leads to approximately, 537,000 crashes, 136,000 injuries, and 1,800 deaths.*It can snow at temperatures well above freezing*Temperatures do not have to be below zero degrees to cause harmOn Fire SafetyThe following information is quoted from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM), “Fires,” online at https://www.vaemergency.gov/fires/, accessed 11/29/21. In just two minutes, a fire can become life-threatening.  In just five minutes, a home can be engulfed in flames. Learn About Fires *Fire is FAST!  In less than 30 seconds a small flame can turn into a major fire. It only takes minutes for thick black smoke to fill a house or for it to be engulfed in flames.*Fire is HOT!  Heat is more threatening than flames. Room temperatures in a fire can be 100 degrees at floor level and rise to 600 degrees at eye level. Inhaling this super-hot air will scorch your lungs and melt clothes to your skin.*Fire is DARK!  Fire starts bright, but quickly produces black smoke and complete darkness.*Fire is DEADLY!  Smoke and toxic gases kill more people than flames do. Fire produces poisonous gases that make you disoriented and drowsy. Asphyxiation is the leading cause of fire deaths, exceeding burns by a three-to-one ratio. Create and Practice a Fire Escape Plan*In the event of a fire, remember that every second counts, so you and your family must always be prepared.  Escape plans help you get out of your home quickly.*Twice each year, practice your home fire escape plan.  Some tips to consider when preparing this plan include:*Find two ways to get out of each room in the event the primary way is blocked by fire or smoke.*A secondary route might be a window onto a neighboring roof or a collapsible ladder for escape from upper story windows.*Make sure that windows are not stuck, screens can be taken out quickly, and that security bars can be properly opened.*Practice feeling your way out of the house in the dark or with your eyes closed.*Teach children not to hide from firefighters.  Smoke Alarms*A working smoke alarm significantly increases your chances of surviving a deadly home fire.*Install both ionization AND photoelectric smoke alarms, OR dual sensor smoke alarms, which contain both ionization and photoelectric smoke sensors.*Test batteries monthly.*Replace batteries in battery-powered and hard-wired smoke alarms at least once a year (except non-replaceable 10-year lithium batteries).*Install smoke alarms on every level of your home, including the basement, both inside and outside of sleeping areas.*Replace the entire smoke alarm unit every 8-10 years or according to manufacturer's instructions.*Never disable a smoke alarm while cooking – it can be a deadly mistake. Smoke Alarm Safety for People with Access or Functional Needs*Audible alarms for visually impaired people should pause with a small window of silence between each successive cycle so that they can listen to instructions or voices of others.*Smoke alarms with a vibrating pad or flashing light are available for the hearing impaired. Contact your local fire department for information about obtaining a flashing or vibrating smoke alarm.*Smoke alarms with a strobe light outside the home to catch the attention of neighbors, and emergency call systems for summoning help, are also available. During a Fire*Crawl low under any smoke to your exit – heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect first along the ceiling.*Before opening a door, feel the doorknob and door. If either is hot, or if there is smoke coming around the door, leave the door closed and use your second way out.*If you open a door, open it slowly. Be ready to shut it quickly if heavy smoke or fire is present.*If you can't get to someone needing assistance, leave the home and call 9-1-1 or the fire department. Tell the emergency operator where the person is located.*If pets are trapped inside your home, tell firefighters right away.*If you can't get out, close the door and cover vents and cracks around doors with cloth or tape to keep smoke out.  Call 9-1-1 or your fire department. Say where you are and signal for help at the window with a light-colored cloth or a flashlight.*If your clothes catch fire, stop, drop, and roll – stop immediately, drop to the ground, and cover your face with your hands.  Roll over and over or back and forth until the fire is out.  If you or someone else cannot stop, drop, and roll, smother the flames with a blanket or towel.  Use cool water to treat the burn immediately for 3 to 5 minutes.  Cover with a clean, dry cloth.  Get medical help right away by calling 9-1-1 or the fire department. Fire Escape Planning for Older Adults and People with Access or Functional Needs*Live near an exit. You'll be safest on the ground floor if you live in an apartment building. If you live in a multi-story home, arrange to sleep on the ground floor, and near an exit.*If you use a walker or wheelchair, check all exits to be sure you get through the doorways.*Make any necessary accommodations, such as providing exit ramps and widening doorways, to facilitate an emergency escape.*Speak to your family members, building manager, or neighbors about your fire safety plan and practice it with them.*Contact your local fire department's non-emergency line and explain your special needs. Ask emergency providers to keep your special needs information on file.*Keep a phone near your bed and be ready to call 911 or your local emergency number if a fire occurs. After a Fire – The following checklist serves as a quick reference and guide for you to follow after a fire strikes.*Contact your local disaster relief service, such as The Red Cross, if you need temporary housing, food and medicines.*If you are insured, contact your insurance company for detailed instructions on protecting the property, conducting inventory and contacting fire damage restoration companies.  If you are not insured, try contacting private organizations for aid and assistance.*Check with the fire department to make sure your residence is safe to enter. Be watchful of any structural damage caused by the fire.  The fire department should see that utilities are either safe to use or are disconnected before they leave the site.  DO NOT attempt to reconnect utilities yourself.*Conduct an inventory of damaged property and items.  Do not throw away any damaged goods until after an inventory is made.  Try to locate valuable documents and records.*Begin saving receipts for any money you spend related to fire loss.  The receipts may be needed later by the insurance company and for verifying losses claimed on income tax.*Notify your mortgage company of the fire. Cooking*Stay in the kitchen when you are frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.*Wear short, close-fitting or tightly rolled sleeves when cooking.*Keep children away from cooking areas by enforcing a “kid-free zone” of 3 feet around the stove.*Position barbecue grills at least 10 feet away from siding and deck railings, and out from under eaves and overhanging branches. Smoking*Smoke outside and completely stub out butts in an ashtray or a can filled with sand.*Soak cigarette butts and ashes in water before throwing them away. Never toss hot cigarette butts or ashes in the trash can.*Never smoke in a home where oxygen is used, even if it is turned off. Oxygen can be explosive and makes fire burn hotter and faster.*Be alert – don't smoke in bed! If you are sleepy, have been drinking, or have taken medicine that makes you drowsy, put your cigarette out first. Electrical and Appliance Safety*Frayed wires can cause fires. Replace all worn, old or damaged appliance cords immediately and do not run

For a long time we thought of the oceans as expendable. As places we could dump trash and other items and not have to worry about them ever again. But then we became more educated and realized that, as Dr. Sylvia Earle put so well in her first book, our fate and the ocean's are one. The pandemic causing us to shift so hard toward working from home has definitely impacted our world, and our oceans. Adam and Naresh are joined by Dr. Earle to discuss what's happening today, whether we're doing enough to save our planet moving forward, and whether the work from home movement is helping the cause. Sylvia is the Founder of Deep Ocean Exploration and the Sylvia Earle Alliance (S.E.A.) & Mission Blue Research; National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence; First female Chief Scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Time Magazine's Hero for the Planet in 1998; subject of the Emmy® Award Winning Netflix documentary, Mission Blue and Seaspiracy, and bestselling author of The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One and the new book NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC OCEAN: A Global Odyssey. Website: www.Mission-Blue.org www.Patreon.com/WorkFromHomeShow www.WorkFromHomeShow.com

Eva sits down with two guests this week to discuss ocean plastic, its impacts, and how to tackle this environmental hurdle. Adam Frederick is the Assistant Director for Education at Maryland Sea Grant; he discusses his work in hands-on science curricula that raises awareness of microplastic pollution in classrooms from Baltimore County to European coasts. Demi Fox is the Northeast Regional Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program, which tackles plastic issues on a large range of scales, from microplastics to ghost fishing gear debris. Tune in to hear about why plastic pollution is an increasingly salient topic and what you can do in your everyday life to lessen your contribution to it.

It's a well-worn cliché that oceans cover seventy percent of the surface of Earth, but we tend to give them secondary consideration when thinking about the environment. But climate change is wreaking havoc on the oceans, not to mention pollution and overfishing — 90% of the world's marine fish stocks are fully exploited or depleted. Today's guest, Sylvia Earle, is a well-known ocean scientist, a celebrated underwater explorer, and a tireless advocate for the world's oceans. We talk about the current state of our oceans, what we know and have yet to learn about them, and what we can do individually and collectively to make things better.Support Mindscape on Patreon.Sylvia Earle received her Ph.D. in phycology from Duke University. She is currently National Geographic's Rosemary and Roger Enrico Chair for Ocean Exploration, as well as founder of Mission Blue, SEAlliance and Deep Ocean Exploration and Research. She formerly served as Chief Scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Among her awards are the TED Prize, the National Women's Hall of Fame, and the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from the Seattle Aquarium. She is the author of several books, the most recent of which is National Geographic Ocean: A Global Odyssey.Mission BlueNational Geographic profile pageNational Women's Hall of FameWikipediaIMDb pageAmazon author pageTwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The U.N. Climate Change Conference has brought together world leaders and environmental groups who hope to design solutions that will combat rising temperatures around the globe.  Baltimore-based Jakir Manela, CEO of the Jewish environmental justice organizations Hazon and Pearlstone Center, attended the conference in Glasgow.  It gave him hope, and also gave him pause: ”It's just an unbelievable kind of unprecedented project that we have in front of us, for humanity to make this transition. I believe we can do it, but it is going to really take all of us.” Then we talk with UMBC art professor Lynn Cazabon to hear how the Maryland Center for History and Culture is personalizing how we consider the effects of climate change. Cazabon co-curated MCHC current exhibit, ‘Losing Winter,' and tells us about it. Plus, Dan Barrie, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration breaks down the differences between weather and climate and how those are both changing in our lifetimes. Links: Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Losing Winter at Maryland Center for History and Culture, MCHC panel discussion ‘Let's Talk About Weather: Changing Patterns in Maryland.' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gardopia Gardens welcomes Jonathan Molineaux, Fisheries Biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Growing Our Future Podcast!Join our host, CEO, Stephen Lucke, and co-host, COO, Dominic Dominguez, as they take a deep dive with Jonathan to explore multiple facets of conversation and sustainability. Jonathan provides supplemental information on the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, ArcGIS Metadata innovations, and Ecosystem Services in conservation, and much more!From land usage, policy creation, cultural awareness, and advocacy, this segment is nothing short of an information-packed episode!

NCLA Successfully Petitions NOAA to Delay Surveillance Rule A rule requiring for-hire charter boat captains off the Gulf of Mexico to install vessel monitoring systems (VMS), a kind of GPS tracking device, on their boats to supply 24/7 location information to the U.S. Government has been put on hold. NCLA previously filed a petition with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to amend the effective date of the Final Rule by 90 days until March 14, 2022. (NOAA has only approved a delay until March 1, 2022) NCLA represents over 1,300 federally permitted charter boat owners operating off the coasts of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, who are seeking relief against the Final Rule in the class-action lawsuit, Mexican Gulf Fishing Company, et al. v. NOAA, et al. The VA Election and Administrative Power Mark and Vec talk about the results of the most recent election in Virginia and explore how they relate to discussions about administrative power.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An area representing one-third of the value of food produced in the United States remains mired in drought, including a stubborn area of Illinois that has pulled through with some surprising results this growing season. Hear from farmers Julie and Marshall Newhouse, along with Brad Pugh, meteorologist with the Climate Prediction Center in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The aquaculture industry has evolved tremendously over the last 40 years. Today, Aquaculture is supplying over 50 % of the world demand for seafood. That's up from less than 5 % 30 just years ago. Interview with University of Guelph Professor Rich Moccia to discover the innovations taking place in this burgeoning industry, as well as an introduction to the world's first genetically modified protein approved for human consumption.Check out the Ie-Knowledge Hub Video Case Studies on the International Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub.Questions or feedback on our episode? Get in touch with show host Thierry Harris: thierry.harris@cartouchemedia.com Episode Research Questions:What are Food economics and how do they impact the commercialization of Aquaculture companies?How does labeling of new products impact Aquaculture companies?What supply chain management issues could impact the Aquaculture ecosystem? Describe the regulatory impact on Aquaculture companies?Write to us at solutions@ie-knowledgehub.ca and we'll post some of your answers on our website page.Guest bio:  Rich MocciaFascinated by the aquatic environment since before his birth, Professor Moccia's career path has always involved ‘water' in some way. Although Rich has focused much of his research and teaching activities in disciplines relevant to the science and practice of aquatic food production, his research also spans studies related to ecosystem impacts and animal welfare. Professor Moccia has held both faculty and senior executive cross-appointments at the University of Guelph, where he has been employed since 1987. Recently completing his term as the Associate Vice-President, Research for the Strategic Partnerships portfolio, he oversaw a number of partnership files, including the OMAFRA-UG Agreement. Professor Moccia's responsibilities to the provincial agrifood partnership included managing research programming, contract administration and infrastructure of 14 provincial research facilities and one regional campuses, as well as oversight of the Laboratory Services Division, encompassing both the Agriculture and Food Lab and the Provincial Animal Health Laboratory. He was also responsible for the Catalyst Centre (ie. research business development office) and the Central Animal Facility.As a professor in the Department of Animal Biosciences, Rich engages in teaching, research and graduate training, and has always had a strong commitment to industry-relevant research, education and extension service.  Rich enjoys exploring the interconnectivity of many varied disciplines in the search for solutions to relevant issues affecting our world.Prior to joining the university, Professor Moccia was self-employed in the private sector, having established 2 SME start-ups specializing in ag-based technologies in the aquatic food production industry.  Rich has been a founding member of several provincial and federal industry associations and advocacy groups, has sat on the Boards of Directors of several agri-based private companies, and has been an invited participant in numerous policy and regulatory reform committees helping to guide smart legislation for Canada.Career Snapshot2007-2016.  Associate Vice-President, Research (Strategic Partnerships), University of Guelph1990-present  Director, Aquaculture Centre, Department of Animal Biosciences1987-present.  Professor, Aquatic and fisheries science, University of Guelph1981-1990.  President and self-employed in 2 small, start-up companies.1978-1981.  Professional Associate, Department of Pathology, Ontario Veterinary College, UGAquaculture CentreProfessor Moccia established the Aquaculture Centre in 1988 and has been its Director ever since.  The Aquaculture Centre has been dedicated to integrating research and extension programs to contribute to the economic and environmental sustainability of the aquaculture sector.  Awards and HonoursLifetime Achievement Award, Aquaculture Association of Canada (2018)National Research Award of Excellence, Aquaculture Association of Canada. (2007)Distinguished Professorial Teaching Award, University of Guelph Faculty Association. (2002)Distinguished Extension Service Award, University of Guelph, OAC Alumni Association. (2004)Dr. Bill Winegard Community Volunteer Award, Volunteer Centre of Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin (2015)Gabrielle Hubert Volunteer Award, UG United Way Campaign (2019)‘Employees Making a Difference' Award for UG – United Way (2015)John Appleton Volunteer Award-Peninsula Bruce Trail ClubInductee. Guelph Sports Hall of Fame-Baseball (2018)Industry Boards and Community Associations (Current only)Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA)-Executive memberCanadian Association of Underwater Science (CAUS)-Executive memberNational Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC)-Board of DirectorsOilseed Innovation Partners (Formerly Soy 20/20)United Way Leadership Committee of Guelph-WellingtonBig Brothers, Big Sisters Guelph-Wellington (Vice President)Ontario Marine Heritage CommitteePeninsula Bruce Trail Club Canadian Aquaculture industry overview (source: Aquaculture.ca)ECONOMIC IMPACTThe sector generates:$5.4 Billion in economic activity in Canada$2.2 Billion in GDPPRODUCTIONAquaculture Production Volume: 191,416 tonnesAquaculture Production Value: $1.39 billionAquaculture accounts for 16% of Canada's total seafood productionAquaculture accounts for over 33% of Canada's total seafood valueEMPLOYMENTAquaculture employs 26,000 full time workersAquaculture generates $1.2 billion in labour incomeEXPORTSAquaculture Export Volume: >103,000 tonnesAquaculture Export Value: $897 millionPrimary Export Destination: United States (94% of total exports)Other Export Destinations: Japan, China,  Taiwan, Israel, Hong KongEPISODE LINKSRich Moccia websiteHistory of aquacultureMemorial UniversitySylvia WulfAquabountyAquAdvantage Salmon fishUniversity of GuelphCook AquacultureMOWI InternationalDr. Garth FletcherDr. Choy HewOcean PoutElliot EntisCanadian Parliamentary review meeting discussing GMOs in AquacultureFDA Review on AquAdvantage Salmon Aquaculture Innovations & ResearchNOAA research linksFeed and nutrition innovationsGenetic selection and engineering technologiesAnimal health and disease managementDisease processes in Aquatic organismsThe Future of therapeutic agentsVaccine developmentWater quality management #1Water quality management #2Marketplace innovations in AquacultureInnovative productsLife support systemsAI in AquacultureData insights in fish monitoringRecirculating aquaculture systems Aquaculture industry ecosystemAquaculture association of Canada, HQ in Torbay NLCanadian Aquaculture allianceOntario Agi-Food Innovation AllianceOntario Ministry of Rural and Agricultural AffairsFisheries and Oceans CanadaU.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  IE-Knowledge HubBusiness Video Case studiesMarket Hunt Podcasts Ie-Knowledge Hub Sponsor CaseMagex Video Case StudyCatherine LamontagneThierry HarrisShow Credits:Market Hunt is produced by Cartouche Media in collaboration with Seratone Studios in Montreal and Popup Podcasting in Ottawa. Market Hunt is part of the International Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub network.  Funding for this program comes from the Social Sciences and Humanities Resource Council of Canada.Executive Producers: Hamid Etemad, McGill University Desautels Faculty of Management and Hamed Motaghi, Université du Québec en Outaouais. Associate Producer, Jose Orlando Montes, Université du Québec à Montréal.Technical Producers Simon Petraki, Seratone Studio and Lisa Querido, Pop up Podcasting. Show consultant, JP Davidson. Artwork by Melissa Gendron. Voiceover: Katie Harrington.You can check out the ie-Knowledge Hub Case studies  at ie-knowledgehub.ca.

For Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, this is the KZYX News for Friday, Oct. 29. I'm Sonia Waraich.The drought's been relentless in California over the past couple of years and the past fall was particularly brutal. Dozens of wells went dry in Mendocino. Dried out soil and fuels elevated the risk of wildfires. And reservoir levels and the streamflow in many rivers reached historic lows.But this past weekend the rain came. There are now signs of recovery, but the situation has been so dire for so long that one rainstorm isn't going to end the drought or fire season. Without more rain, things could dry out and go back to the way they were before the storm hit.The county got anywhere from 4 to 13 inches of rain depending on where you were. That was enough rain for the city of Fort Bragg to rescind its drought emergency. But nearby, the town of Mendocino is holding off on declaring the end to its own. Ryan Rhoades manages the district's water supply and he says the board decided to maintain its Stage 4 water emergency earlier this week.“It's still so early in the season and we don't know how much more rain is coming. While we are happy, we're cautiously optimistic. Hope for more rain, but prepare for more drought.”Right now the National Weather Service says it's too early to say whether or not wetter weather systems passing through the West Coast will extend as far south as Mendocino County. This could be the first rain of many or it could be the one of the only significant rainstorms of the season.“Don't let a little bit of early rain sort of fool you into thinking we're totally out of the woods because the drought's not going to return or the drought's over because that may not be the case.”Rhoades says what's as important as the amount of rain that falls is the amount of time that rain falls over. Right now the soil doesn't exactly have the capacity to absorb all of that water because the ground is hard and dry because of the drought.“A lot of that water is just flowing over the surface and over the edge of the cliffs. That's not helpful because it's not retaining it in the aquifer.”Despite that, the rain did help some.“I had my first phone call and recorded report of a well that's recovering. A well that's been dry for the past couple of months is now producing again. The homeowner was ecstatic. He said, it's been running for 25 minutes and we have water. So that's great news. I hope to receive more reports like that.”So far, Rhoades says two people have reported that their wells recovered. That's good news, but, again, their wells recovering doesn't necessarily mean the aquifer is being recharged.“While lot of the wells in Mendocino are shallow and they're under the influence of surface water, a heavy rain might make it look like their wells are recovering but the reality is when you get 4 inches in 24 hours, that's not enough time for that water to really soak deep into recharge the aquifer.”A similar situation is playing out with the fire season. The rainfall over the weekend allowed firefighters to contain over 90% of the remaining fires in Northern California. But Cal Fire's Isaac Sanchez says it would be premature to declare fire season over, too. And the drought exacerbates the fire season. That's because the rain did help in the short term, but the long term is a different story.“That's something that we need, as well as the snowpack that started to accumulate up in the Sierras. But unfortunately, we're not expecting much more rain coming up. There's always a potential for something to change, but I know that we're going to be dry for the next seven to 10 days with no prospects that I'm aware of at this point anyway, of follow up rain. And ultimately that's what we want to see. We want to see several rain storms come through before we can really kind of, you know, take a breath essentially.”The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting it's going to be dry in Southern California for the rest of this year and going into next. What happens with precipitation in Northern California is still anyone's best guess. Regardless, it's going to be hotter than usual across most of California.“If we see another week or two weeks of dry conditions, warm temperatures. The rain that we experienced will, as far as the dead fuel moistures that are out there, it'll be like it never happened.” Like the rainfall, the temperature in Northern California can go either way over the next few months. But because Cal Fire is a state agency, Sanchez says it makes decisions around staffing based on what's happening in the entire state. And the southern part of the state isn't doing so well.“We're still within a drought, and it takes repeated rainstorm events for us to feel comfortable in reducing staffing and moving over to transitional staffing and winter staffing levels. But as of right now, unless there are follow-up storms that bring more precipitation we don't anticipate that we'll be doing transitional staffing because we're expecting it to be dry for the rest of this year and early next year.” Sanchez says people should stay prepared for a wildfire even in Northern California given the possibility things stay drier than what used to be normal.“It's not going to take long for that to dry out. So maintain that vigilance. Recognize that you have a role in preventing the next wildfire and, of course, be prepared in the event that a fire does break out in your area.” For the KZYX News, I'm Sonia Waraich, a Report For America corps member. For all our local coverage, with photos and more, visit KZYX.org. You can also subscribe to the KZYX News podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. 

You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Westerly native, David Roy Gavitt was an American college basketball coach and athletic director at Providence College? He was also well known as the first commissioner of the Big East Conference and as part of the committee which created the 1992 Olympic basketball "Dream Team". Now for our feature story: The Town Council is expected to select an option for dealing with the dam that crosses the Pawcatuck River at the Potter Hill Mill on Monday. The dam that once harnessed the energy of the river to run the mill was rated as being in poor condition by Fuss & O'Neill, an environmental engineering firm hired under a under a three-year grant secured by the town from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The grant's primary focus is improving fish passage along the river where several other impediments have been removed since 2005. The river is described in a preliminary report by Fuss & O'Neill as "a regionally significant river system for diadromous fisheries, including Atlantic salmon and American shad, and may also have historically supported a significant migratory brook trout population." Other migratory fish known to use this system, according to the report, include alewife, blueback herring, rainbow smelt, sea-run brown trout, as well as the American eel. The grant application calls for removal of the dam but members of the council, after hearing from residents who live on the river in both Westerly and Hopkinton, have discussed a less-intensive approach that would lower the dam and maintain the river's depth and width. The residents have complained that complete removal of the dam would devalue their property by transforming their riverfront views into mudflats and vegetation. Several of the residents are also concerned that compete removal of the dam would cause their shallow-point drinking water wells to fail. Fuss & O'Neill staff have acknowledged the potential effect on the dams and have said funds from future years of the grant could be used to replace the affected wells prior to the dam being removed. For more about the coronavirus pandemic, the recovery, and the latest on all things in and around Westerly, head over to westerlysun.com. There are a lot of businesses in our community that are hiring right now, so we're excited to tell you about some new job listings. Today's Job posting comes from Crimmins Residential Staffing in Westerly. A couple in Watch Hill is looking for a part-time housekeeper. Pay is $35 per hour and you'll work there 3 days per week in season and one day per week during the off-season. For more job requirements, check out the link in the description: https://www.indeed.com/jobs?l=Westerly%2C%20RI&mna=5&aceid&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpf2IBhDkARIsAGVo0D2S3gEb-328GyRpBuTTeeKPdn3-klOh0KYAsfete6MEZmI5S4qTg-4aAnQkEALw_wcB&vjk=028da372fc87d663 Today we're remembering the life of Barbara Barbone. As a child of the depression, she moved from Pawcatuck to Glasgo, CT to live on the family farm where she began her love of jelly donuts. She spoke often of the fun times and lessons learned at the one room school house. Returning to Pawcatuck, she graduated from Stonington High School as a member of The National Honor Society. Her passion for education led her to UCONN where she joined Kappa, Kappa Gamma Sorority and completed her bachelor's in teaching at Central CT Teachers College in 1950. Babara taught her whole life, retiring from West Broad Street School as a kindergarten teacher.  Babara enjoyed family, friends, a good book and her beloved cats. Her door was always open to accept visitors. She never turned down a trip to DQ or Buttonwoods for ice cream. She enjoyed sitting in the sun watching the birds, her gardens and wildlife. A life well lived with many lessons taught to family, friends and students. Just remember when we meet again to bring the sweets, she will have the coffee waiting, and her lipstick on. She was predeceased by the love of her life Anthony Thomas Barbone, Jr. She is survived by three children, and three grandchildren. Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Barbara's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, this is the KZYX News for Friday, Oct. 15. I'm Sonia Waraich. It's a Wednesday afternoon in late September and technicians from San Diego are installing a desalination unit at the Fort Bragg water plant. Heath Daniels works for the city and will be responsible for operating the desalination system when the Noyo River's water becomes too salty. The river water can become salty during king tides, which happen when the moon's gravitational pull causes water levels to rise several inches. That's been an issue because the river hasn't provided enough fresh water to dilute the saltwater that gets into it during those events, which prevented the city from being able to pump water from the river. For the moment, the rain's eliminated the need for the city to use the desalination system.Daniels says the desalination system is standing ready for when the streamflow in the Noyo does get too low again. City Manager Tabatha Miller told the Fort Bragg City Council on Tuesday that they did end up using it recently for a few days.The rain and the arrival of the desalination system have left the city in a secure enough position to downgrade its drought emergency from a Stage 4 water crisis to a Stage 2 water alert. Miller says the drought isn't over yet, but people in the city don't have to conserve as much as they were during the summertime.There's no need to get water trucked in from Ukiah anymore either. The city put a stop to that last week.On top of all of that, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting Mendocino County has a pretty good chance of getting its usual amount of rainfall through the rest of the year.The impacts of the drought might be less severe for the moment, but catastrophic wildfires are still raging across the state. Scientists say the solution is to fight fire with fire and now the state agrees. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the last of three bills that are going to make it easier to conduct a prescribed burn on private land. Lenya Quinn Davidson is with the UC Cooperative Extension and an authority on prescribed fires.Experts recognize we need more of these fires on the landscape in California, so the state decided to make it easier for tribes and private landowners to conduct burns without having to worry about paying the firefighting costs if the fire got out of control. Twenty million dollars was also set aside in the state wildfire budget for a prescribed fire claims fund.Quinn-Davidson says the fact that you couldn't get insurance made it really difficult to do a prescribed burn even with increased investment from the state. But she says the benefits of conducting prescribed fires can't be overstated. A prescribed fire project in Sequoia National Park was able to change the behavior of the wildfire there and protect the General Sherman Tree, which is the largest tree on Earth.For KZYX News, I'm Sonia Waraich, a Report For America corps member. For all our local coverage, with photos and more, visit KZYX.org. You can also subscribe to the KZYX News podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. 

In this episode, Kyu joins Matt and Aaron to talk about community and its various dimensions. They talk about the ways that even during a pandemic, community deepens through people sharing more openly, and through shared experiences and touchstones. But they also talk about the ways that formative communities have suffered and the challenge of returning to a life sacrificed for others. Plus, they share some things they like! Mentioned in this episode: The cheetah and dog at the San Diego Zoo. Elastic straps to hold the fitted sheet in place (this is just an example, not necessarily what Aaron has!). Uncle Jim's Worm Farm (where Matt got his composting worms). Some information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on how snow is formed. More from Eberhard Arnold (there's also a link partway down the page where you can learn more about him).

Blood-red sunsets in the Midwest are striking but ominous illustrations of new data: Parts of the Midwest are being exposed to more wildfire smoke from the West Coast and Canada compared to more than a decade ago. Experts say the impact of the smoke on health in the region is a concern.Meteorological patterns — weather, air currents, fronts — sweep wildfire smoke hundreds of miles across the country. Nowhere in the Midwest is this increased exposure to wildfire smoke more pronounced than in western Nebraska. Take the case of Scottsbluff, a city of about 15,000 in Nebraska's panhandle. From 2016 to 2020, Scottsbluff experienced a 45% increase in days on which wildfire smoke was in the atmosphere. That's compared to an earlier period that was analyzed, from 2009 to 2013.A year ago in Scottsbluff the concentration of particulate matter — tiny pieces of debris suspended in the air — exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) standards. That was a result of smoke sweeping into western Nebraska from wildfires in Canada.Western and central Kansas also saw meaningful increases in smoke days, according to a data analysis conducted by NPR California Newsroom and the Stanford University Environmental Change and Human Outcomes Lab.“Although we see variability from year to year, the trend appears to be increasing impacts of smoke across Kansas over the last several years,” said Matt Lara, a spokesman with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in an email.Lara said the effect from smoke may be mostly in the upper atmosphere, causing hazy skies and dramatic sunset. He added that sometimes, such as late July and early August this year, federal air standards for daily particulate matter are exceeded. “Some of these impacts may not be surface based but upper atmosphere and cause hazy skies and dramatic sunsets but others, such as late July and early August this year did cause air monitoring sites to exceed the federal air quality standards for daily particulate matter.”‘Expect this to get worse'Health and meteorology experts say the growing presence of wildfire smoke in parts of Kansas and Nebraska could pose health risks to those who breathe it in. That concern is compounded, given the likelihood that vast and intense fires from California and surrounding areas will persist.“All the science -- and there's a lot of science on this -- suggests if we don't change our game on this, people should expect this to get worse,” said Burke, who helped NPR's California Newsroom assemble its smoke data. “It's going to be worse in the West, but it's certainly going to get worse in the Midwest as well as more people are exposed to smoke from fires in the West.”The analysis relied on satellite images captured every few hours by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that showed plumes of smoke billowing into the atmosphere from western wildfires. Those images were then plotted over nearly every zip code across the continental United States to show the areas where the wildfire smoke reaches.Smoky skies, clear effectsIn California and more broadly along the West Coast, the growing frequency and intensity of wildfire pose clear air quality and health risks.The NPR California Newsroom analysis examined data from state health facilities and found there were 30,000 more hospitalizations from cardiac and respiratory conditions in 2018, which was a record year for fires at the time.Shawn Jacobs, the warning coordination meteorologist at the North Platte National Weather Service office, said that the climate in central and western Nebraska may play a role in how smoke is distributed in the region. The state's climate becomes more aird west of Kearney, Nebraska, and the lack of moisture allows for greater temperature swings. More fluctuation means more movement, preventing the smoke from settling, Jacobs said. These trends are being noticed by western Nebraskans.“So much so that there are times when people have called us and asked, ‘Is there a fire nearby?' because we're seeing this smoke,” Jacobs said.Colleen Reid, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Colorado who studies the impacts of wildfire smoke, said the health effects are clear when there are high concentrations of smoke in the air.That risk arises from tiny particles that are so small they can pass into the bloodstream from the lungs when people breathe.The particulate matter can lead to asthma, cardiovascular problems and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.The health risks are less clear the further the smoke travels.“In terms of the Midwest where you're getting the smoke transmitted long distances, there needs to be more research to understand whether the long-range transport changes the way it affects health,” Reid said.Where skies are clearerThe presence of smoke is relatively muted in areas like eastern Kansas and Nebraska, as well as Iowa and Missouri. Wide swaths of northwest Missouri had modest increases in exposure to smoke, but many areas of the state had decreases in smoke days during the two periods analyzed by the NPR California Newsroom and Stanford.The presence of wildfire smoke does not often exceed EPA standards for air quality in the Midwest, and it has never been enough to result in a violation of the Clean Air Act. Even so, EPA officials keep an eye on wildfire smoke migrating from the west to the Midwest.“It is something that is on our radar; it's a concern,” said Lance Avey, an air and radiation division meteorologist for the EPA's Region 7, which covers Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri.Doug Norsby, air quality planner with the Mid-America Regional Council, said that while the occurrence of poor air quality days in the Kansas City region from wildfire smoke are infrequent, the presence of particulate matter from smoke is an issue that has captured the organization's attention.“I would say it's a flashing warning light on our mental dashboard,” said Norsby.The EPA is currently evaluating particulate matter from wildfire smoke and other sources to determine whether it should change its air quality standards. That review happens every five years.Why wildfires?Experts said two main causes have triggered the increase in wildfires along the West Coast, Canada and the Rockies. One is the tendency to extinguish small fires that, if allowed to burn, would clear acres of leaf litter and dead wood. Without those smaller fires, dry leaves and wood ignites and leads to the more intense and out-of-control fires that have plagued California and other western states in recent years.“The Smokey The Bear campaign has been really successful,” said Marshall Burke, associate professor in Stanford University's Department of Earth System Science. “What do we do when a fire starts? We put them out.”Burke said California should carry out prescribed burns — also known as controlled burns — on more than 1 million acres of land in California each year. “We're not doing anything close to that,” Burke said.Reduced rainfall and rising temperatures from climate change also make for stronger wildfires.Those blood-red sunsets are a telltale sign of smoke in the air.Eric James, a scientist with NOAA's global systems laboratory, said large fires that pump smoke into the upper atmosphere enter the jet stream and can travel across the continental United States.“We see this most years, this long-range transport of smoke,” James said “It has gotten more intense in the last few years from what we've seen.”The Midwest has the occasional wildfire, as well as controlled burns in places like the Flint Hills in Kansas. But James said most of the wildfire smoke in the Midwest is attributed to western blazes.“I think the majority of the impact is from these large forest fires in the Pacific coastal states, Colorado and the intermountain west,” James said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration together with the Census Bureau recently launched a challenge. They're looking for developers to find creative ways to use NOAA's data. The goal is to create applications state and local governments can use to make better decisions about climate change. Joining the Federal Drive with more, the chief of NOAA's communication, education and engagement division, David Herring.

A new study by Princeton University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had found clear evidence that human activity is the primary cause of the significant increase in heat stored in our planet.  In fact, the study found that there is less than a 1% chance that natural variability is the sole cause of […]

For Christians maturing in their faith, the longing for a deeper understanding of God's Word can naturally lead them to Seminary… but it can be a struggle to fit graduate school into their lives. The cost can also be prohibitive for some.Denver Seminary has a campus right here in the area. It offers working adults a flexible affordable education in a supportive community.  Rev. Debora Barr shared how men and women are being empowered for ministry and transformed by God at Denver Seminary.Reverend Debora Barr serves as an Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden (FBCG) in Maryland, the host site for the Denver Seminary Washington DC Extension campus. She holds a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary and her prior education background includes a Bachelor of Science in Geology (Missouri State), a Masters of Aeronautical Science (Embry-Riddle), and a Juris Doctor Law (University of the District of Columbia). Debora served her country for over 28 years in the uniformed services of the United States where she entered the US Army in 1988 and served as a helicopter pilot; followed by more than 22 years as a commissioned officer in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration where she flew scientific missions and served in various leadership roles. Reverend Barr's passion is teaching, speaking, preaching and writing about personal intimacy with Jesus, and helping to direct people to the unconditional love and healing power of Christ, which truly transforms lives.

Check out the heroes who saved the ozone layer at https://futureoflife.org/future-of-life-award/ Lots of global problems seem intractable, but there's a formula for success that we can follow. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: Ozone layer: A thin layer of ozone concentrated in the Earth's stratosphere roughly 10 kilometers above that absorbs most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation before it hits the Earth's surface. Ultraviolet radiation: Invisible rays of energy that come from the sun that can be harmful to humans and other lifeforms. Chlorofluorocarbons: Also known as CFCs, these long man-made molecules used to be widely used refrigerants and solvents before it was discovered that - when exposed to ultraviolet radiation - their chlorine atoms would break off and combine with ozone molecules. Smallpox: A virus that killed more than half a billion humans before being eradicated in 1980. Disease Surveillance: A practice by which disease progressions are closely monitored in order to minimize the harm caused by outbreaks. ⬇️ PREORDER OUR FIRST BOOK (out October 12th) ⬇️ DTFBA (get SUPER-cool book bundles here!): https://store.dftba.com/collections/minuteearth Amazon - http://bit.ly/MinuteEarthExplains Bookshop.org - http://bit.ly/MinuteEarthexplains Barnes and Noble - http://bit.ly/Minuteearthexplains Indigo (Canada)- http://bit.ly/MinuteearthExplains SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* David Goldenberg (@dgoldenberg) | Script Writer, Narrator and Director Ever Salazar (@eversalazar) | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Ochmann, Sophie, and Max Roser. “Smallpox.” Our World in Data, 2018, https://ourworldindata.org/smallpox. Data on Smallpox. Henderson, D A. SMALLPOX - the DEATH of a DISEASE : The inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer. S.L., Prometheus, 2021, pp. 57–61. CDC. “History of Smallpox.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 Feb. 2021, https://cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html. Waxman, Olivia B. 2019. “Reagan Administration Officials at First Dismissed the Ozone Hole. Here's What Changed.” Time. April 9, 2019. https://time.com/5564651/reagan-ozone-hole/ Velders, G. J. M., S. O. Andersen, J. S. Daniel, D. W. Fahey, and M. McFarland. 2007. “The Importance of the Montreal Protocol in Protecting Climate.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (12): 4814–19. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610328104. US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. n.d. “Susan Solomon: Pioneering Atmospheric Scientist.” Celebrating200years.noaa.gov. Accessed July 20, 2021. https://celebrating200years.noaa.gov/historymakers/solomon/welcome.html. Solomon, Susan. 2019. “The Discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole.” Nature 575 (7781): 46–47. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02837-5 Pyle, John, and Neil Harris. 2013. “Joe Farman (1930–2013).” Nature 498 (7455): 435–35. https://doi.org/10.1038/498435a. Foege, William H, and Milbank Memorial Fund. House on Fire : The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox. Berkeley, University Of California Press, 2012 Future of Life Institute. “Future of Life Award 2020: Saving 200,000,000 Lives by Eradicating Smallpox.” Future of Life Institute, Lucas Perry, 11 Dec. 2020, https://futureoflife.org/the-future-of-life-podcast/.

Are we really ready for what is coming, Hunter S. Thompson a week after 9/11, Yale study - climate change in the American mind, this summer was hotter than the Dust Bowl summer, & leaked IPCC report. Written by Hunter S. Thompson a week after 9/11 - "We are At War now, according to President Bush, and I take him at his word. He also says this War might last for "a very long time." Generals and military scholars will tell you that eight or 10 years is actually not such a long time in the span of human history -- which is no doubt true -- but history also tells us that 10 years of martial law and a war-time economy are going to feel like a Lifetime to people who are in their twenties today. The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed. That is extremely heavy news, and it will take a while for it to sink in. The 22 babies born in New York City while the World Trade Center burned will never know what they missed. The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what's coming now. The party's over, folks." Yale study - climate change in the American mind - source "46% of Americans still believe climate change is "natural" or "not happening." 25% are worried about it. A mere 15% think they will be harmed from the fallout, and just 10% have put any real effort into changing their lifestyle. 63% of people have made no lifestyle changes since 2008." This summer was hotter than the Dust Bowl summer, NOAA says - source "The period from June through August this year was the hottest on record in the United States, exceeding even the Dust Bowl summer of 1936, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Thursday." "We leaked the upcoming IPCC report!" - Scientist Rebellion - source "We have leaked part III of the upcoming IPCC report. There's no time to wait around, there's no time for continued inaction – the people deserve to know NOW what our corporate owned politicians have done to them. The greatest crime ever has already been carried out – the perpetrators are still at liberty, but the victims are starting to pile up. We leaked the report because governments – pressured and bribed by fossil fuel and other industries, protecting their failed ideology and avoiding accountability – have edited the conclusions before official reports were released in the past. We leaked it to show that scientists are willing to disobey and take personal risk to inform the public. We plead with people to go into serious nonviolent resistance. To join us in the streets to apply unbearable pressure on this genocidal system – to take it down before it takes us all down with it." What's happening in America and are we ready for what is coming?- my little rant Produced by The Wild 1 Media. Check out our other podcasts- https://darksidediaries.sounder.fm https://anchor.fm/ttmygh https://crypto101.sounder.fm/

Denying Candace Owens a Lab Test Is Insane  Recently, political analyst and author Candace Owens was denied medical care in the form of a COVID-19 test by a Colorado laboratory because of her political beliefs. She said in a tweet that the testing lab refused her request for a test, citing her "spreading misinformation" about the pandemic. "I just received an e-mail from a Covid testing facility that they are REFUSING to administer a test to me because they don't like my politics. INSANE," Owens wrote on Twitter.  24/7 Warrantless Surveillance of Gulf of Mexico Charter Boats    Charter boat fishing is estimated to account for approximately 0.2 percent of the 1.5 billion pounds of fish caught each year in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, if you were to believe the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 1,300 federally permitted charter boats operating in the Gulf require 24-hour warrantless surveillance to protect fisheries. NCLA recently released a video highlighting the class-action lawsuit, Mexican Gulf Fishing Company, et al. v. NOAA, et al. The lawsuit challenges a Final Rule that requires each charter boat to be “equipped with [approved] hardware and software with a minimum capability of archiving GPS locations.”  You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW_64sFZUWg See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the world tries to keep global temperatures from rising above 1.5 or even 2 degrees celsius, one of the biggest resources to slow global warming may be changing sides.  The Amazon rainforest has always been hailed for its ability to absorb the world's carbon. Now, a new study is showing fires and deforestation are causing parts of the rainforest to expel more carbon than they absorb. This is changing the global warming equation and making it that much easier for the planet to heat up. In this episode: Dr John Miller, Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)  Connect with The Take:  Twitter (@AJTheTake), Instagram (@ajthetake) and Facebook (@TheTakePod)

You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about news, the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Rhode Island native, Marvin “Bad News” Barnes, was an all-american basketball player and played professionally in both the ABA and NBA? In 1973, Barnes was the first player to score ten times on ten field goal attempts which wouldn't be beaten until 1986. He was rookie of the year in the ABA playing for the Spirits of St. Louis. Barnes was known for his colorful personality. Barnes once refused to board a plan from Louisville Kentucky to St. Louis because the short flight was scheduled to arrive before its departure time as it switched time zones. He famously said “I ain't getting in no damn time machine.” and rented a car instead. Now, we turn our feature story…. A new question-and-answer document is available for those hoping to learn about plans to remove the Potter Hill Mill dam that spans the Pawcatuck River and once provided power for the now-defunct textile facility. The 21-page informational piece was developed by the project team and provided to the town councils in Westerly and Hopkinton and is also posted on Westerly's municipal website. The document attempts to answer questions about the project that have been submitted to the project team through Westerly's website. Tim Mooney, spokesman for the Nature Conservancy said: "At the public meetings, the project team encouraged folks to submit their questions to the town of Westerly's website. And we got a lot of great questions. The Q&A document gives the project team a way to answer the community's questions and provide an update on the status of the project at the same time." The private, non-profit Nature Conservancy is working on the project along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Environmental Management, the Southern Rhode Island Conservation District and the town of Westerly. Removal of the dam has emerged as the project team's preferred option for accomplishing the project's main goals: improving fish passage in the river and reducing flood risks. Repairing the dam has been ruled out because of maintenance that would have to be performed once the repairs were made. The dam and mill property were both petitioned into receivership by the town of Westerly after property owner Edward Carapezza and his Renewable Resources Inc. failed in efforts to redevelop it. Prior owners also allowed the mill property to languish. The dam is the last barrier to fish passage on the river. Many members of the project team have worked together for years to remove other dams and obstacles in the river. Stay up to date on this developing story at westerlysun.com There are a lot of businesses in our community that are hiring right now, so we're excited to tell you about some new job listings. Today's Job posting comes from Cargill in Westerly. They're looking for shipping and receiving associates. You'll be responsible for working in a fast paced environment packing meat products. Pay is up $20.00 per hour. If you're interested and think you'd be a good fit for the role you can apply using the link in our episode description. https://www.indeed.com/jobs?l=Westerly%2C%20RI&mna=5&aceid&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpf2IBhDkARIsAGVo0D2S3gEb-328GyRpBuTTeeKPdn3-klOh0KYAsfete6MEZmI5S4qTg-4aAnQkEALw_wcB&vjk=740518464e480bd4 Today we're remembering the life of Justin Thomas Anderson, 47, of Charlestown, who peacefully assumed Executive Chef duties behind the eternal line. Born  in Hartford, he was a lifelong Whalers fan. In his youth, he demonstrated early signs of culinary acumen by referring to chicken wings as chicken-on-the-cob. Justin was forevermore drowned out by the arrival of his siblings. Raised in West Hartford, Justin was a '92 graduate of Conard High School, where with a group of masterful misfits he forged unbreakable bonds, whose antics tried the patience of parents and brake calipers. A self-taught musician, he won the talent show and was a featured member of his Dads garage band, Duke and the Esoterics. He spent his summers in Quonochontaug, RI, getting into good trouble with lasting friends, and where he would eventually call home despite detesting sand. He attended Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI as he honed his technique and creativity at various established restaurants before working up the line at W.B. Codys in Westerly. After 15 years of succulent BBQ and a cast of treasured Codys characters, including his best friend Chad, Justin enjoyed his remaining years at the Breachway Grill in Charlestown. A gifted Executive Chef, Justin was known for his tireless dedication, diligence, and intrepidness. Over the years, he refined his signature dishes of Chicken Scarpello, Fish Tacos, Sweet Chili Pasta, and Braised Short Ribs, while constantly pushing himself and the limits of expletives, on one occasion perfecting a tricky flan recipe for a Breachway Wine Night Dinner. A compassionate mentor and peer, he was quick with a knowing smirk to a harried colleague. He is predeceased by his best dog pal, Cody and is survived by countless friends far and near, extended family including loving Aunts, Uncles and cousins, his parents, three siblings, his adoring out-laws that thought of Justin as their own, nieces, nephew and Godson, and his cat, Papi. Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Justin's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

About The StclairSpeaksShow Podcast We interview professionals in the business who are looking to share their business stories through podcast marketing. Our ideal guests are authors, speakers, real estate investors, non-profits, small business owners, solo entrepreneurs, and influencers diving into their business stories and what influenced them to get on their path of success. An interview about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the work environment. Jason Greer Founder and President of Greer Consulting Inc. Labor-Management and Employee Relations consulting firm Diversity Expert & International Best Selling Author Jason is widely known for his work in the area of racial reconciliation based upon his experiences as a victim of cross burnings and racial harassment by the Knights of Ku Klux Klan. This story and the resulting lessons have been given a new perspective in his keynote, Diversity and The Brain: What's Your Story? Jason has been recognized as an Employee Relations and Diversity expert by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, ABC, CBS, Fox News, Entrepreneur, and INC Magazine. Jason was also named as one of the Top Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2020 by Thrive Global. Jason has conducted diversity training for organizations such as The United States Army, Google, Nike, Enterprise, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Honda, and Toyota. Jason Greer's Contact Info http://www.hiregci.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonjgreer/ Stream and watch the Full Interview here https://youtu.be/vEA4xLhNZvU STREAM ALL STCLAIRSPEAKSHOW PODCAST EPISODES ON OUR NEW STREAMING PLATFORMS CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE BELOW https://www.stclairspeaksshow.com Pandora https://pandora.app.link/pi5zFZgoNcb https://www.audible.com/pd/StclairSpeaksShow-Podcast/episodes/B08K5646F7?ref=a_pd_Stclai_c4_episodes_view_all&pf_rd_p=4073763d-737f-4fdb-8d3b-90f7184c5d4b&pf_rd_r=18SDMEKFC49SQ7TRRYR1 IHeartRadio https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-stclairspeaksshow-72280965/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stclairspeaksshow/support

July 2021 has the unfortunate distinction as being the world's hottest month ever recorded according to global data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.   July is typically the warmest month of the year, but this July was the warmest month of any year on record. The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was […]

Tonight's Guest WeatherBrain is an American scientist and former government official who served as the acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He's previously appeared on the show.  Dr. Neil Jacobs, welcome back!  Tonight's second Guest WeatherBrain is a WeatherBrains alum and an American structural and forensic engineer as well as meteorologist, concentrating on damage analysis, particularly that from wind and other weather phenomena. He is also a pioneering storm chaser and was editor of Storm Track magazine.  Dr. Tim Marshall, welcome back to the show!  Last but certainly not least, we welcome Special Guest founder of the legendary band Wet Willie.  Jimmy Hall, welcome!

As a citizen scientist, you can help researchers explore the causes, effects and potential responses to global climate change and other environmental issues. And you can do it from home or out in the field! In this episode of Citizen Science: Stories of Science We Can Do Together, we explore six projects coming at the issue from six very different angles.  Discover these and many other climate change-focused and environment-related citizen science volunteer opportunities through the SciStarter Project Finder! Projects featured in this podcast episode include: Caroline Nickerson's Miss Louisiana Earth featured projects Climate Change in Scripted Media OSDG Community Platform Climate History Australia Urban Buzz Ghosts of the Coast Ripple Effects via the Citizen Science, Civics and Resilient Communities program supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Find other NOAA-supported citizen science pages hosted by science centers and museums on SciStarter. The article by Max Cawley (of the Museum of Life + Science in Durham, North Carolina) that Caroline mentions in the episode intro is on the SciStarter Blog. Transcript for this episode coming soon on the SciStarter Podcast page.

From Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, this is the KZYX News for Monday, Aug. 16. I'm Sonia Waraich.Last month was the hottest July ever recorded on Earth and in Mendocino County, according to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,. The federal agency is also predicting there's going to be lower than average rainfall in Mendocino for at least the next six months so the drought's not going anywhere.One of the groups working on addressing the drought locally is the Mendocino Countywide Drought Task Force. The task force is made up of Supervisor John Haschek, Supervisor Glenn McGourty and Josh Metz, who was contracted by the county to coordinate the drought response. They met on Thursday by Zoom and gave updates on how the drought is being felt and addressed around the county.Josh Metz started with some good news – the county is making progress in addressing one of the major issues its facing because of the drought, how to move water from one part of the county to another.Ukiah and Fort Bragg started the push for a regional approach to the drought through mutual aid agreements. Those agreements are expected to make it easier for cities to share water by without facing regulatory hurdles.Metz said the initial goal will be to transport ten 6,000-gallon truck loads of water from Ukiah to Fort Bragg for a total of 60 to 70,000 gallons per day.There's also been talk of using the Skunk Train to transport water from inland to the coast. The idea hit some roadblocks around cost, but it looks like funding has become available for the project through the state's Department of Water Resources.Not everyone in attendance was happy with that idea. During public comments, one resident of the Willits Valley called in and told the task force to lobby elected officials to implement solutions that won't tax people living inland.Supervisor Glenn McGourty didn't foresee the depletion of groundwater being a problem in the immediate future since that water supply is monitored by the Ukiah Valley Basin Sustainable Groundwater Management Agency.Move water around the county in an efficient and cost-effective way has been central to the drought response. That's because even though the entire county is facing an extreme drought, not every part of the county is experiencing the drought the same way. Ukiah is faring pretty well through the drought because of early investments the city made in building up its water resources. The city has reduced how much water it pulls from the Russian River by 75 to 80% and still has water available to spare to help other areas around the county.But cities like Fort Bragg are concerned. The city still has a steady supply of water but last Monday the Fort Bragg City Council kicked up its water emergency to Stage 3, calling for water users in the city to conserve 10% more than they had been since mid-July.City officials are worried about the lack of rainfall predicted in the region in the coming months because of how it will impact the Noyo River. Fort Bragg relies on the Noyo River as one of three main water sources. The Noyo usually experiences its lowest streamflow at this part of the year and doesn't get replenished until there's significant rainfall. In the meantime, high tides can cause the water in the Noyo to become too brackish to be pumped for drinking water by the city. Fort Bragg Public Works director John Smith said the city's is expecting its desalination system to arrive next month. That will allow the city to make the brackish water drinkable after high tide events.For the KZYX News. I'm Sonia Waraich, a report for America corps member. For all our local stories, with photos and more, visit KZYX.org. You can also subscribe to the KZYX News podcast where you get your podcasts.

A weather map was first broadcast on TV on 18th August, 1926 - but there were no fancy graphics, no on-screen forecaster, and only one intended recipient: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, DC.In the UK, the Met Office had been producing weather forecasts since 1861, but the BBC didn't bring a ‘weatherman' to British screens until 1954.In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain Charles Darwin's connection to weather-forecasting; review the first weather forecast on NBC's Today programme, and reveal exactly how much time the Brits spend discussing the weather… Further Reading:• ‘Weather forecast facts: the first forecast in Britain, the birth of the Met Office and the first TV weatherman' (HistoryExtra, 2018): https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/facts-history-weather-forecast-weatherman-tv/• ‘BBC Television Weather at 60 - A Celebration' (BBC, 2014): https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/research/television-weather• ‘TODAY's First Weather Forecast: Jan. 14, 1952' (NBC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiAyWYCcAI0For bonus material and to support the show, visit Patreon.com/RetrospectorsWe'll be back tomorrow! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts: podfollow.com/RetrospectorsThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dr. Sylvia Earle is the perfect guest for a deep dive into a very important conversation: ocean exploration and conservation. As a National Geographic Explorer At Large, Dr. Earle is an internationally renowned oceanographer and author of the forthcoming book National Geographic Ocean: A Global Odyssey, Dubbed TIME Magazine's first ‘Hero of the Planet,' Dr. Earle serves as President & Chairman of Mission Blue/The Sylvia Earle Alliance and was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Library of Congress called her a “Living Legend” and we couldn't agree more. In this wide-ranging conversation, we find out what first made Dr. Earle fall in love in the ocean, why we need to rethink and reimagine our relationship with marine life, and what we stand to lose if we don't take the necessary steps to save the ocean. Check out The Climate Pod's YouTube Summary of the IPCC Report Subscribe to our Substack newsletter "The Climate Weekly": https://theclimateweekly.substack.com/ As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our new YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. Check out our updated website! Further Reading/Listening: Dr. Sylvia Earle's profile in National Geographic

Welcome back family for another amazing episode of the DOPE Thoughtz Podcast!!! On today's episode we touched upon: Our most recent trip out to Vermont; some hocus pocus Astrological stuff covering “The Lions Gate Portal opening up on August 8th” and how it could be relatable to climate change; German Nurse says fuck vaccines and gives THOUSANDS saline solution instead of shots; and continuing our “Plug Talk” segment we will actually be introducing our audio book blue and this weeks review on Lois Lowry's occult classic THE GIVER Thank you all for the continued support ♥ Angel Numbers and the significance of the number 8 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announces July was Earth's hottest month on record Statistics on wildfires in US this year Nurse in Germany gives over 8,000 people saline shot instead of COVID vaccine The Giver by Lois Lowry

Guest: Rear Admiral Timothy GallaudetIntroduction:When we think of weather, climate and oceanography, one of the main organizations that comes to mind in the United States is NOAA: the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Today we want to dive into the ‘O' in that acronym and look at the role NOAA plays with our planet's oceans. Who better than the former Administrator of NOAA, Rear Admiral (ret) Timothy Gallaudet of the U.S. Navy. He has almost two decades of service in the Navy, and was also appointed as Commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command. Welcome, Rear Admiral Gallaudet!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the 221st day of the year, at least, that’s the spot on the annual timeline upon which this script was written and the chronic coordinates when this recording was made. We can also just go ahead and say it’s August 9, but where would the fun be in that? In any case, this is the 229th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, which is also perhaps an unnecessary numerical signifier. Either way, I’m Sean Tubbs, your two syllable host. On today’s show:The General Assembly signs off on Governor Northam’s $4.3 billion ARPA spending plan, but makes a few adjustmentsOne Albemarle Supervisor warns about dry conditions And a federal partnership is seeking volunteers to help map urban heat island conditions in CharlottesvilleIn today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out: The Rivanna Conservation Alliance is looking for a few good volunteers to help out on Clean Stream Tuesdays, a mile and a half paddle and clean-up to remove trash and debris from popular stretches of the Rivanna River. Trash bags, trash pickers, gloves, and hand sanitizer/wipes will be provided, though volunteers will need to transport themselves to and from the end points. Kayaks for the purpose can be rented from the Rivanna River Company. Visit the Rivanna Conservation Alliance's volunteer page to learn more about upcoming dates.The seven-day average for COVID cases in Virginia continues to rise with the Virginia Department of Health reporting that number as 1,626 today. On Saturday, there were 1,784 new cases reported, 1,573 cases reported Sunday and 1,298 today. The seven-day percent positivity rose to 7.3 percent. As of Friday, 98.55 percent of cases since February have been in people who have not been fully vaccinated. There are 51 cases reported in the Blue Ridge Health District today and the percent positivity rose to 4.5 percent. On Friday, leaders at the University of Virginia announced they would begin requiring masks indoors in order to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19. UVA is still preparing to begin the fall semester later this month. According to UVA Today, the policy applies to indoor spaces owned or leased by the University, but are not required when eating or drinking. The policy also does not apply outdoors.The General Assembly has passed a marked up version of a plan to spend $4.3 billion of state funding that comes from the federal American Rescue Plan. The legislature’s changes include $2.5 million for grants for community-based gun violence prevention reduction and $3,000 bonuses for officers who work in Sheriff’s offices and regional jails. The General Assembly also wants the Department of Motor Vehicles to submit a plan within 30 days to serve walk-in customers at service centers.  Currently all visits are made by appointment only.Around $761 million in funds will not be programmed at this time depending on the direction of the ongoing pandemic, according to a release from Governor Northam’s office. Areas with high amounts of asphalt and pavement are less healthy places to live, and a hotter climate will exacerbate the problem. The city of Charlottesville is participating in a federal program to map urban heat islands and is looking for volunteers to provide data on temperature and humidity levels. The National Integrated Heat Health Information System is a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other partners across the world. According to the website, the idea is to “understand this problem, develop a robust and science-informed response, and build capacity and communication networks to improve resilience.”The effort is seeking people who are willing to take samples on three different occasions in the last two weeks of August. If you’re interested, there’s a volunteer interest form to fill out. If you need more information, that’s available on the city website. Learn more about the NIHHIS program in a brochure on their websiteOn Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finalized the first section of their Sixth Assessment Report titled Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. A 39-page Summary for Policymakers describes in detail how human activity since the beginning of the industrial age has contributed to the gradual warming of the planet. The Arctic sea ice is melting, sea level is rising, and the report indicates that warming will continue throughout the mid-century even if greenhouse gas emissions can be cut severely. (view the various reports on the IPCC website)Earlier this month, Governor Ralph Northam announced five new historical markers will be placed across the Commonwealth to commemorate contributions Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have played. One of them will celebrate the life of W.W. Yen, a Chinese man who graduated from the University of Virginia in 1900.“Virginia has about 2,500 historical markers across the state but not enough are dedicated to sharing [Asian American and Pacific Islander] history,” Northam said in a ceremony announcing the new markers, each of which was submitted by students across Virginia. “This is a problem because AAPI history is Virginia history.”Take a look at the release to find out who else has been recognized. W.W. Yen is the subject of one of five new historic markersThe rest of the newsletter is a review of last week’s Albemarle Board of Supervisors meeting. That was August 4 for anyone who needs a time stamp. At the top of the meeting, Supervisor Ann Mallek wanted people who don’t live in the rural area to know there’s a problem.“Urban people who have not been out in the countryside may not be aware of how severe this dryness is,” Mallek said. “We have streams drying up all over the place in the countryside and pastures are gone, hayfields are gone, cornfields are gone.” According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Albemarle County is either in the Abnormally Dry or Moderate Drought. All of Nelson County is marked as Moderate Drought, while Fluvanna and Greene counties are Abnormally Dry. Mallek warned that the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority be clear in reporting conditions to the city of Charlottesville and the Albemarle County Service Authority. “If we don’t start getting rain there is going to be a precipitous drop in supply,” Malelk said. “It happens very fast, like two, three, four feet a day at South Fork [reservoir] when things get to that saturation point.”According to today’s water report from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, South Rivanna is full, as is the Totier Creek reservoir that serves Scottsville. Sugar Hollow is down over ten feet and Ragged Mountain is 2.31 feet below the usual level. Today’s reservoir report from the RWSAAlbemarle County has hired a new director of the Human Services Department. Ti-Kimena-Mia Coltrane will take over the position on September 20, 2021, succeeding Lorna Gerome who will retire that month. Coltrane’s most recent position was as the Organizational Learning and Development Administrator for the city of Roanoke. She has worked in human resources for 17 years and has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Texas, a Bachelor of Science in Human Services and religious studies from Indiana Wesleyan University, and a Master of Public Administration  from the University of Maryland. “I look forward to applying my experience in developing current and future catalyst leaders to services,” Coltrane said in a press release. Supervisors also agreed to schedule a public hearing on September 1 on whether to adopt an ordinance to levy a cigarette tax, a power that counties in Virginia only just received from the General Assembly this year. The work is being coordinated by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, who will be administering a regional board to collect the tax. Lori Allshouse is the Assistant Chief Financial Officer for Policy and Partnerships for Albemarle County. “The ordinance would establish a regional board which would efficiently administer the collection, accounting, disbursement, compliance monitoring, and the enforcement of cigarette taxes assessed by localities that desire to join the board,” Allshouse said. Fluvanna, Nelson and Greene counties have expressed interest in joining the board. Madison, Orange, and Augusta counties are also considering the board, even though they are not part of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. The city of Charlottesville is also interested. I’ll have more from the Board of Supervisors meeting and from other recent meetings in future installments of the newsletter.Thank you for reading. Did you know this is a podcast, too? Every installment of CCE (but not the Week Ahead) is a podcast as well, building off my years in audio production. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Elinor DeWire at Cape Meares Lighthouse, Oregon Elinor DeWire is an award-winning author, editor, public speaker, educator, and blogger based in Connecticut. She began her writing career with freelance stories for a Florida newspaper, and in 1987 she published her first book, Guide to Florida Lighthouses. Since then, she's authored some twenty books about lighthouses. From 1991 to 2000 Elinor wrote two regular columns for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's Mariners Weather Log, one about the U.S. Lifesaving Service and one on lighthouses. She continues to contribute articles on lighthouses to various publications. She's also written early Victorian-era novels, plus four books and a number of articles about amateur astronomy and sky watching. Elinor DeWire at Anclote Key Lighthouse, Florida Elinor was awarded a short fiction prize in 1992 from the National League of American Pen Women. She is also the recipient of the Coast Guard Meritorious Public Service Award. She serves today on the board of directors of the U.S. Lighthouse Society and chairs the Society's Education Committee. Elinor's website Elinor's blog Also in this episode: an interview with Bill Gicker, director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service, about the new stamps. On August 6, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing a new set of five Mid-Atlantic lighthouse stamps. The stamps feature paintings by Howard Koslow, and they depict he following lighthouses: Montauk, New York; Navesink Twin Lights, New Jersey; Erie Harbor Pierhead in Pennsylvania; Harbor of Refuge in Delaware; and Thomas Point Shoal in Maryland. Use this player to listen to the podcast:

Photo:  La Niña, the counterpart to El Nino, alters rainfall patterns over the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. La Nina develops when stronger-than-average trade winds push the warm surface waters of the equatorial Pacific west.  Since cold water rises to replace the warm water, La Nina leaves the eastern and central Pacific Ocean much cooler than normal, while the western Pacific is much warmer than normal.  These anomalies in sea surface temperature are mirrored in rainfall patterns, with warmer-than-normal temperatures resulting in enhanced rainfall.  In general, La Nina brings unusually heavy rain to the West Pacific, Indonesia, parts of Southeast Asia, and northern Australia. Jeff Bliss @JCBliss #PacificWatch  La Niña will not bring relief. Jeff Bliss @JCBliss #PacificWatch  California drought: La Niña could dash hopes of desperately needed rain this winter -- The punishing drought conditions afflicting most of California are expected to endure for months, climate experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said Thursday. There is a 60% chance, NOAA experts said, of a La Niña event this winter — conditions that would likely bring about a cool and very dry winter. San Francisco Chronicle

Good Morning, Colorado, you're listening to the Daily Sun-Up with the Colorado Sun. It's Friday July 16th.   Some areas of Colorado's Front Range have been hit harder than others by COVID-19.  In many cases, those neighborhoods are communities of color or made up of low-income households.    Today we take a look at new research that's reinforcing the disparities we've seen during the pandemic.   But before we begin, let's go back in time with some Colorado history adapted from historian Derek R Everett's book “Colorado Day by Day”:   Today, we take you back to July 16th, 1945 when scientists with the top secret Manhattan Project successfully tested the first atomic bomb in New Mexico. It was fuel from western Colorado, in part, that made this terrifying new weapon possible. Prospectors had discovered radioactive minerals in several Colorado counties back in the 1890's.   Now, our feature story.   All of Colorado's Front Range has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but some neighborhoods have been hit harder than others. In many cases, those hardest-hit neighborhoods are communities of color or made up of low-income households. In Denver, the pandemic has been particularly relentless in a cluster of poor neighborhoods within a region known as the “inverted L,” where health impacts of many types have l been notably worse than in more affluent parts of the city. As Colorado Sun health care reporter John Ingold tells Erica Breunlin, new research is reinforcing the glaring disparities behind COVID-19.   To read more about how the pandemic has affected neighborhoods in the Front Range differently, visit coloradosun.com.   And Before we go, here are a few stories that you should know about today:   A federal grand jury has indicted Denver-based DaVita Inc. and the dialysis company's former CEO Kent Thiry on charges that they conspired with competing companies not to try to hire certain employees. DaVita and Thiry are accused of two counts of violating the Sherman Act, which involves antitrust law. They are due in court on July 20 for their initial appearance. If convicted, DaVita could face a maximum penalty of a $100 million fine per count. Thiry would face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine per count. Thiry has denied the accusations. Although COVID-19 restrictions slowed business across Colorado, the struggle wasn't as terrible as many feared it would be. Some chambers of commerce report having retained most of their members during the pandemic and even signing on new ones. State data shows that operating businesses are keeping steady, and new business filings jumped 32.2% in the first quarter compared to a year ago. Still, many businesses did not persevere through the recession caused by the pandemic. Those that have prevailed are no longer focused on surviving but rather on re-emerging problems, like finding enough workers. The American West is enduring extreme heat and drought, suffering some of the consequences of climate change, scientists say. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. has set 585 new heat records that in the past month. The average daily high temperature for the region from the Rockies and to the west in June was 85.7 degrees, 1.3 degrees warmer than the previous record. Additionally, close to 60% of the West is in exceptional or extreme drought, according to the University of Nebraska's Drought Monitor. That represents the highest percentage in the monitor's 20-year history. Meanwhile, soil moisture levels have plummeted to some of the lowest recorded levels in many Western states while 68 large fires are actively burning, torching more than 1 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.   For more information on all of these stories, visit our website, www.coloradosun.com. And don't forget to tune in again tomorrow for a special holiday episode. Now, a quick message from our editor. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Thomas Delworth is Senior Scientist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and is one of the world's leading climate modeling centers. He's been there since 1984!!

On this episode of the Tornado Trackers Podcast, Aerospace Engineer Nick Underwood joins us to talk about the role of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hurricane Hunters. Equipped with instrumentation, these aircraft and crew members fly into hurricanes to gather data used in life-saving forecasts issued by the National Hurricane Center. Nick discusses his particular role aboard the P-3 Orions, his journey to joining the  Hurricane Hunters team, what it's like to fly through a Category 5 hurricane, and his ultimate dream of one day becoming an astronaut. Support the show!https://www.patreon.com/tornadotrackersNick Underwood Twitter | Instagram National Hurricane Center: www.nhc.noaa.govNOAA: www.noaa.govIntro/Outro Music:  NEW HORIZONS - Lesion X 

On June 12, 2014 a hail storm that hit Abilene produced more than $400 million in insured losses to vehicles, homes and commercial property. "This is the worst storm damage I've seen in my 41 years in the insurance business," Leroy Perkins of the Perkins Insurance Agency in Abilene, told the largest state insurance trade association in the United States. the storm, packing baseball-sized hail, moved directly south across Abilene pounding the city's north side and downtown area. Commercial buildings downtown received millions of dollars in damage to roofs, windows and structures. Total uninsured losses are also expected to be high, Perkins adds. "Downtown looks like autumn because all of the trees have been stripped of their leaves and many limbs down in the street," Karla Martin with the Taylor County Sheriff's Office said the day after the storm. Hundreds of vehicles, many of them new cars, were declared totaled from the beating they took. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) notes that hail causes approximately 1$ billion in damage to crops and property each year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CLICK HERE to listen to episode audio (5:05). Sections below are the following:Transcript of AudioAudio Notes and AcknowledgmentsImagesExtra InformationSourcesRelated Water Radio EpisodesFor Virginia Teachers (Relevant SOLs, etc.). Unless otherwise noted, all Web addresses mentioned were functional as of 6-4-21. TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of June 7, 2021. MUSIC – ~10 seconds - instrumentalThat's part of “Tropical Tantrum,” composed for Virginia Water Radio in 2017 by Torrin Hallett, a recent graduate of Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.  The music sets the stage for our annual preview of the Atlantic basin tropical cyclone season.  We start with some guest voices, calling out names that, if we're lucky, will not become infamous this summer or fall.   Have a listen for about 30 seconds, and see if you can guess who—or rather, what—is being named. GUEST VOICES - ~30 sec – “Ana.  Bill.  Claudette.  Danny.  Elsa.  Fred.  Grace.  Henri.  Ida.  Julian.  Kate.  Larry.  Mindy.  Nicholas.  Odette.  Peter.  Rose.  Sam.  Teresa.  Victor.  Wanda.” If you guessed the names planned for storms that may occur during this year's Atlantic tropical cyclone season, you're right!  The Atlantic basin includes the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic tropical cyclone season runs officially from June 1 through November 30.  Most Atlantic tropical cyclones occur within this period, but not all of them.  For the past six years in the Atlantic basin, named storms have formed before June 1, including Alex in January 2016, and this year, Ana, which strengthened into a tropical storm on May 23. [Editor's note, not in the audio: Other recent pre-June named Atlantic storms include Arlene in April 2017, Alberto in May 2018, Andrea in May 2019, and Arthur in May 2020.]Tropical storms and hurricanes are two categories of tropical cyclones, which are rotating storm systems that start in tropical or sub-tropical latitudes.  A tropical cyclone is called a tropical storm—and gets a name—when sustained wind speeds reach 39 miles per hour; at 74 miles per hour, a tropical cyclone is considered a hurricane.  Tropical depressions—with wind speeds below 39 miles per hour—don't get named if they never reach tropical storm wind speed,* but they can still bring damaging rainfall and flooding.  Hurricane-force storms are called typhoons in northwestern areas of the Pacific Ocean.[Editor's note, not in the audio: A tropical system that never gets above the tropical depression wind-speed level won't be given a name.  But a lingering tropical depression that previously was at the wind speed of a tropical storm or hurricane will have a name associated with it.]Before a tropical system of any speed or name barges into the Old Dominion, here are some important preparedness steps recommended by the National Weather Service. Know your zone – that is, find out if you live in a hurricane evacuation area by checking the Virginia Department of Emergency Management's “Know Your Zone” Web site, or contacting your local emergency management office. Assemble an emergency kit of food, water, medicines, and supplies. Have a family emergency plan, including plans for evacuating and for getting in touch with one another in an emergency. Review your insurance policiesto ensure that you have adequate coverage for your home and personal property. And establish ways to stay informed, especially if the power goes out, and be sure you understand the meaning of Weather Service forecast terms. Detailed safety tips for hurricanes and other severe weather are available from the “Safety” link at the National Weather Service Web site, www.weather.gov. Thanks to several Blacksburg, Va., friends for lending their voices to this episode.  Thanks also to Torrin Hallett for this week's music, and we close with the last 15 seconds of “Tropical Tantrum.” MUSIC – ~15 seconds - instrumental SHIP'S BELL Virginia Water Radio is produced by the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, part of Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment.  For more Virginia water sounds, music, or information, visit us online at virginiawaterradio.org, or call the Water Center at (540) 231-5624.  Thanks to Stewart Scales for his banjo version of Cripple Creek to open and close this show.  In Blacksburg, I'm Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water. AUDIO NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “Tropical Tantrum” is copyright 2017 by Torrin Hallett, used with permission.  Torrin is a 2018 graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio, a 2020 graduate in Horn Performance from Manhattan School of Music in New York, and a 2021 candidate of the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver.  More information about Torrin is available online at https://www.facebook.com/torrin.hallett.  Thanks very much to Torrin for composing the piece especially for Virginia Water Radio.  This music was used previously in several episodes, most recently in Episode 526, 5-25-20, the 2020 Atlantic tropical storm season preview.  Click here to hear the full piece (28 seconds). Thanks very much to Blacksburg friends who recorded the planned tropical cyclone names.Click here if you'd like to hear the full version (1 min./11 sec.) of the “Cripple Creek” arrangement/performance by Stewart Scales that opens and closes this episode.  More information about Mr. Scales and the group New Standard, with which Mr. Scales plays, is available online at http://newstandardbluegrass.com. IMAGES Predictions for the 2021 Atlantic tropical storm season.  Graphic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “NOAA Predicts Another Active Atlantic Hurricane Season,” 5/20/21, online at https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-predicts-another-active-atlantic-hurricane-season.Map showing the names, dates, and tracks of named Atlantic basin tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes) in 2020. Map from the National Hurricane Center, “2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season,” online at https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/index.php?season=2020&basin=atl.One of several “5 Things to Know About…” posters related to hurricane safety, provided by the National Weather Service, “What to Do Before the Tropical Storm or Hurricane,” online at https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane-plan.  The other posters in the series cover evacuation planning, strengthening one's home, getting information, and updating insurance. EXTRA INFORMATION ON TROPICAL CYCLONE PREPAREDNESS The following information is quoted from the National Weather Service, ‘Hurricane Safety,” online at https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane. Plan for a Hurricane: What to Do Before the Tropical Storm or Hurricane(online at https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane-plan)“The best time to prepare for a hurricane is before hurricane season begins on June 1.  It is vital to understand your home's vulnerability to storm surge, flooding, and wind.  Here is your checklist of things to do BEFORE hurricane seasons begins.Know your zone: Do you live near the Gulf or Atlantic Coasts?  Find out if you live in a hurricane evacuation area by contacting your local government/emergency management office or, in Virginia, by visiting https://www.vaemergency.gov/hurricane-evacuation-zone-lookup/. Put Together an Emergency Kit: Put together a basic emergency kit; information to do so is online at https://www.ready.gov/kit.  Check emergency equipment, such as flashlights, generators, and storm shutters.Write or review your Family Emergency Plan: Before an emergency happens, sit down with your family or close friends and decide how you will get in contact with each other, where you will go, and what you will do in an emergency.  Keep a copy of this plan in your emergency supplies kit or another safe place where you can access it in the event of a disaster.  Information to help with emergency plan preparation is online at https://www.ready.gov/plan. Review Your Insurance Policies: Review your insurance policies to ensure that you have adequate coverage for your home and personal property.Understand NWS forecast products, especially the meaning of NWS watches and warnings.Preparation tips for your home are available from the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, online at https://www.flash.org/. Preparation tips for those with chronic illnesses are available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, online at https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/infographic/emergency.htm.Actions to Take When a Tropical Storm or Hurricane Threatens(online at https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane-action) “When a hurricane threatens your community, be prepared to evacuate if you live in a storm surge risk area.  Allow enough time to pack and inform friends and family if you need to leave your home. Secure your home: Cover all of your home's windows.  Permanent storm shutters offer the best protection for windows.  A second option is to board up windows with 5/8 inch exterior grade or marine plywood, built to fit, and ready to install.  Buy supplies before the hurricane season rather than waiting for the pre-storm rush. Stayed tuned in: Check the websites of your local National Weather Service office (online at https://www.weather.gov/) and local government/emergency management office.  Find out what type of emergencies could occur and how you should respond. Listen to NOAA Weather Radio or other radio or TV stations for the latest storm news. Follow instructions issued by local officials. Leave immediately if ordered! If NOT ordered to evacuate: *Take refuge in a small interior room, closet, or hallway on the lowest level during the storm.  Put as many walls between you and the outside as you can. *Stay away from windows, skylights, and glass doors. *If the eye of the storm passes over your area, there will be a short period of calm, but at the other side of the eye, the wind speed rapidly increases to hurricane force winds coming from the opposite direction.” After a Hurricane(online at https://www.weather.gov/safety/hurricane-after) Continue listening to a NOAA Weather Radio or the local news for the latest updates. If you evacuated, return home only when officials say it is safe. Once home, drive only if necessary and avoid flooded roads and washed-out bridges.  If you must go out, watch for fallen objects in the road, downed electrical wires, and weakened walls, bridges, roads, and sidewalks that might collapse. Walk carefully around the outside of your home to check for loose power lines, gas leaks, and structural damage. Stay out of any building if you smell gas, if floodwaters remain around the building, if the building or home was damaged by fire, or if the authorities have not declared it safe. Carbon monoxide poisoning is one of the leading causes of death after storms in areas dealing with power outages.  Never use a portable generator inside your home or garage. Use battery-powered flashlights.  Do NOT use candles.  Turn on your flashlight before entering a vacated building.  The battery could produce a spark that could ignite leaking gas, if present.” EXTRA INFORMATION ON TROPICAL CYCLONE NAMES The following information is quoted from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “Tropical Cyclone Names,” online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml, as of 6-8-21.“Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms had been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center.  They are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization [online at http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/tcp/]. “[Six lists] are used in rotation and re-cycled every six years, i.e., the 2019 list will be used again in 2025.  The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name on a different storm would be inappropriate for reasons of sensitivity.  If that occurs, then at an annual meeting by the WMO committee (called primarily to discuss many other issues) the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.  Several names have been retired since the lists were created.  [More information on the hi

Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: Pipeline protesters seized a key construction site and carried out numerous acts of civil disobedience on Monday in an attempt to slow down the construction of the Line 3 pipeline route across Minnesota. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris gets back in touch with her roots as a cop, delivering a staunch warning in Guatemala to any people there who would dare to try to make a better life for themselves in the United States. And lastly a new report from Motherboard shows that Amazon's furniture delivery service is causing chaos for the company's already under-paid and over-worked drivers. THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: A new major pipeline protest is underway in Minnesota, where native-led activists are trying to halt the construction of the Line 3 project between that state and Canada. The project is owned by a Canadian oil company called Enbridge. On Monday, the Washington Post reports that dozens of cars filled with activists had descended on a construction site operated by the company. They were led by a group of native american activists, and were joined by celebrities like Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener, who rallied the crowd as some protesters strapped themselves to bulldozers and other equipment. Fonda said quote: “Biden has taken a very clear and very beautiful position on the climate crisis. But we are really facing a potential catastrophe, and the science is very clear: it's not enough to do something good here ——like shutdown Keystone XL, shut down drilling on the Arctic national refuge ——and then allow Line 3 to go through.” endquote. And in practice, the Biden administration's point was a whole lot less beautiful. Reporters on the ground caught video of a Department of Homeland Security Helicopter dangerously buzzing another group of protesters on the ground at a pumping station, trying to use the backwash from its rotors to scare off activists. According to the Post, the indigenous activists leading the campaign see two threats from the pipeline: the existential risk of climate change, and the direct risk of the pipeline polluting tribal lands in the headwaters of the Mississippi River. If Monday's demonstrations are any indication, they're willing to fight to keep it from happening. Kamala the Cop Goes Abroad Kamala the cop is back. The Vice President is down on her first international trip, playing enforcer for Joe Biden's new immigration policies in Guatemala. She came with a carrot before the stick, of course. Harris was acting as the ambassador of a four year plan to send more than $4 billion dollars to Central America and Mexico in an attempt to improve the economic hardships that drive mass immigration to the U.S. According to the New York Times, this money will go toward things like investing in young women entrepreneurs and creating an anti-corruption task force for the region. That's all well and good, but Kamala was equally clear when she laid out what will happen to those people who don't place their faith in nebulous U.S. aid, and instead seek refuge in the country by any means necessary. Harris said: "Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border.” Later, she added quote: “I believe if you come to our border, you will be turned back.” While there are some differences between how that kind of policy will play out under Biden, the core message that VP Harris is delivering sounds pretty familiar: it's the same one we've been hearing for the past four years. Amazon Forces Drivers to Build Furniture Another day, another scoop by Motherboard on the dystopian Amazon beat. Today, the website reports that Amazon has made an unexpected foray into furniture assembly in order to crowd out other retailers that offer similar services. Motherboard reports that as a result, untrained delivery drivers are being made to lug bulky items into customers houses and then assemble them, all on a timeframe that they say is wildly unrealistic for what's expected. To make matters all the more absurd, Motherboard also obtained the training video for this service, which is a strange cartoon narrated by a monotonous robot featuring robotic workers who deliver lines like quote: “Thanks so much for choosing us! Could you confirm you are satisfied with this delivery and service?” endquote. Meanwhile, here's what an actual human driver told Motherboard QUOTE: "It has been an [EFFING] challenge. It always takes much longer than they allow for. The times they give feel completely random and way off. And there's been absolutely no training whatsoever. They just said you're going to do this." And as we well know by now, it's almost impossible to argue with Amazon. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: While his workers are suffering, Jeff Bezos announced that he's going to space. The billionaire plans to be one of the crew on the first manned flight of a Blue Origin spacecraft in mid July. Good luck up there, Jeff! We'll all be very interested to see how that flight goes. Scientists from Scripps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday that atmospheric CO2 levels peaked in May, despite the slowdown in fossil fuel use during the pandemic. Not even that respite was enough to stem the constant buildup of CO2. Something to watch later this week: the New York Times reports that the Senate is preparing to pass a massive package of industrial policy legislation with bipartisan support, aimed at keeping the U.S. competitive with China. It's amazing what handouts to corporate interests and xenophobic jingoism can do to break the Washington gridlock! The United Mine Workers say that the bosses at Warrior Met Coal have stepped up their physical attacks on striking workers at coal mines in Alabama, on three separate instances hitting picketers with vehicles, in a shocking display of aggression against organized labor. AM QUICKIE - JUNE 8, 2021 HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Jack Crosbie PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn

Top Republican senators are now saying they are opposed to creating a Capitol Riot commission. Ylan Mui reports one of those republicans is Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). President Trump’s money man, Allen Weisselberg, is now under investigation by the New York Attorney General. The Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold joins to discuss the investigation. Israel agreed to a cease-fire after 11 days of continued deadly violence. Ilan Goldberg, senior fellow and director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security, discusses what to expect now. There’s a continued argument on whether schools should mandate masks for school. Dr. Anthony Fauci joins discusses that and other issues, including how safe the Olympics will be. Plus, hurricane season is here. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there’s a 60 percent chance hurricanes will be more active than normal.

Was the wreck of the Clara Nevada a terrible accident or the greatest mass-murder in Alaska history? Superstitions swirl around boats, and some captains believe bizarre myths. Renaming a vessel remains foremost among the maritime harbingers of bad luck, and if you dare change the name of your boat, you must follow a strict protocol to avoid certain doom. The Clara Nevada did not even complete her maiden voyage under her new name. Is this boat the case study to prove the truth of the old mariner’s superstition, or did her captain plot her demise? On February 5, 1898, the SS Clara Nevada departed Skagway, Alaska, headed for Juneau and then Seattle. Hurricane-force winds of 90 knots (100 mph 161 km/h) pummeled the vessel with following seas of twelve to fifteen feet (4-5 m) as the helmsman attempted to navigate the infamous Lynn Canal of Alaska’s Inside Passage. When the decrepit old ship reportedly struck a rock and sank, the news surprised no one. Searchers found the body of only one man, the ship’s purser, but news reports speculated no one survived such a horrific accident. The loss of the Clara Nevada at first seemed a tragic but foreseeable accident, and no one doubted the negligence of the ship’s owners and captain. Before long, though, folks began asking questions, and the Seattle newspapers speculated wildly about the disaster. Crewmen believed to have died in the wreck turned up alive and well. Even the captain materialized and wasted little time beginning his next venture to ferry prospectors to the goldfields. What happened on February 5, 1898, aboard the Clara Nevada? Was the wreck an accident, or did the captain and a few crewmen perpetrate the worst mass-murder in the history of Alaska? Sources The Clara Nevada; Gold, Greed, Murder and Alaska’s Inside Passage. Levi, Steven C. 2011. History Press. This book was my main source for this article. It covers the sinking of the Clara Nevada and the exploits of Captain C.H. Lewis in much more detail than I’ve included here. The author also describes the challenges involved in trying to research a maritime disaster in Alaska in the late 1800s. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about the Clara Nevada or get a feel for the atmosphere in both Seattle and Skagway during the Klondike gold rush. Gold on the Clara Nevada: Cold Case Gets Hot. National Underwater and Marine Agency. Available at: Chilkoot Trail https://numa.net/2014/05/gold-on-the-clara-nevada-cold-case-gets-hot/ Eldred Rock Lighthouse, Alaska. Lighthousefriends.com. Available at: https://lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=828 Clara Nevada. Hougen Group. Available at: www.hougengroup.com/yukon-history/yukon-nuggets/clara-nevada/ The Clara Nevada’s sinking may always remain a mystery. 08-26-2012.James, David. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Available at: www.newsminer.com/the-clara-nevada-s-sinking-may-always-remain-a-mystery/article_b217c23-97Of-58cd-972d-411d91575508.html Captain Lewis The 2007 Hassler Expedition; The Hassler’s last days and the wreck of the Clara Nevada. National Marine Sanctuaries. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. Available at: https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/maritime/expeditions/hassler/last_days.html SS Clara Nevada.Shipwrecks in Pacific Waters: 1800s. Maritime Heritage. Available at: https://www.maritimeheritage.org/ships/SS-Clara-Nevada.html Clara Nevada. Skagway Stories. Available at: www.skagwaystories.org/2011/02/04/clara-nevada/ Haunted Inside Passage: Ghosts, Legends, and Mysteries of Southeast Alaska. Dihle, Bjorn. 2017. Alaska Northwest Books. Eldred Rock       ________________________________________ If you would like to support Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier? Become a patron and join The Last Frontier Club. Each month I will provide one or more of the following to club members. · An extra episode of Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier available only for club memb...

From the depths of the ocean to the voids of outer space, maps matter. That's the motto of Kathryn Sullivan — astronaut, oceanographer, and former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Jack Dangermond, founder of the mapping software company Esri, joins her to explain the science of “where.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What Does The Future Look Like For COVID-19 Long-Haulers? There’s something strange happening with some people who’ve gotten sick with COVID-19: Somewhere between 10 and 30% of people who are infected are stuck with long-lasting effects and complications.   People dealing with long-term symptoms after a coronavirus infection are known as COVID long-haulers, and as the pandemic gets longer, their numbers grow. Long-haul COVID is still a mystery in a lot of ways, but work is being done to understand it better. Joining Ira to talk about the various effects of Long COVID and its possible treatments are Walter Koroshetz, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and David Putrino, director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York, New York.     Punjabi Sikh Truckers Lack Access To COVID-19 Information The cab of Sunny Grewal’s 18-wheeler is neat and tidy. He’s got bunk beds with red checkered sheets and gray interior cabinets that hide a fridge, microwave, paper plates and spices for long days on the road. One plastic container holds bite-sized sweets from his native India. “We call it gur, G-U-R,” Grewal says. “You can put it in tea, or you can have a small piece after food.” Grewal is a trucking company owner-operator based in Fresno. He’s on the road upwards of 150,000 miles a year, delivering produce and cleaning supplies like hand sanitizer to and from the East Coast, the Midwest, and the South. In other words, his work is essential to keeping this country running. “If nurses want to take care of you, they need the stuff that we bring,” he says. “You want to buy food to stay home, you’re going to stock the food in your house, we bring that food.” Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of California designated truckers as essential workers, but that status hasn’t materialized into any tangible advantages or privileges:No requirements that rest stops remain open, no hazard pay, and no priority access to the vaccine. “It is strange that our day didn’t come sooner,” says Lovepreet Singh, a truck driver from Bakersfield who was hoping momentum in support of his industry would build after the White House honored truck drivers with a rally in April 2020. Singh and Grewal are also among an estimated hundreds of thousands of truckers in the U.S. who are Sikh, from the northern Indian state of Punjab. The North American Punjabi Trucking Association estimates Punjabi Sikhs make up 20 percent of the country’s truckers and control as much as 40 percent of the industry in California, and yet few public health departments in the state offer critical COVID-related information in the Punjabi language. “It makes me feel left over, you know?” says Grewal. That lack of information has had consequences for the whole Punjabi-speaking community, says Manpreet Kaur of the non-profit Jakara Movement, especially in the early days of the pandemic. “The information was just always missing or it was too late or it was shared in a way that wasn’t easily understood,” she says. Read more at sciencefriday.com.     Particle Behavior Disobeys Laws Of Physics As We Know Them Physicists have confirmed the unexplainable behavior of an elementary particle first noticed 20 years ago. Experiments at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, showed that a certain subatomic particle, called a muon, disobeys the laws of physics as scientists have written them. This is a big deal for scientists in a field where much is still unknown. Plus, our hotter Earth will officially become the new normal next month. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will release its once-a-decade update to “climate normals”, baseline temperatures meteorologists rely on for their forecasts. While some places won’t see much of a change, this new update will substantially change what’s “normal” across the coasts and in the southern U.S. Joining Ira to talk about these science stories and other big news of the week is Roxanne Khamsi, science journalist based in Montreal, Quebec.  

Dr. Lorian Schweikert is a scientist that recently had the opportunity to be part of a research team that studied deep water aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico. They conducted a ton of research, and the biggest success of their study was capturing for the second time ever, live video of a giant squid. I talk with Lorian about the importance of this, the mystery of giant squid, and about many other species and experiences that were a part of her trip and study. This research was funded by the Ocean Exploration and Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The success of the mission was due to the efforts of all involved, including the captain and crew of the research vessel, R/V Point Sur, and the science party (in alphabetical order after Dr. Johnsen): Dr. Sonke Johnsen – Lead Investigator  Dr. Heather Bracken-Grissom Dr. Dante Fenolio Alex Davis Dr. Tammy Frank Dr. Heather Judkins Dr. Megan McCall Dr. Nathan Robinson Ruchao Qian Dr. Lorian Schweikert Dr. Tracey Sutton Dr. Edith Widder If you have questions or suggestions for the show you can text Tom at 1 305-930-7346 This episode has been brought to you by Waypoint TV. Waypoint is the ultimate outdoor network featuring streaming of full-length fishing and hunting television shows, short films and instructional content, a social media network, Podcast Network. Waypoint is available on Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, IoS devices, Android Devices and at www.waypointtv.com all for FREE! Join the Waypoint Army by following them on Instagram at the following accounts @waypointtv @waypointfish @waypointsalt @waypointboating @waypointhunt @waypointoutdoorcollective Find over 150 full episodes of Saltwater Experience on Waypoint You can follow Tom Rowland on Instagram @tom_rowland and find all episodes and show notes at Tomrowlandpodcast.com Learn more about Tom's Television shows by visiting their websites: Saltwater Experience Into the Blue Sweetwater   Contact Tom through email: Podcast@saltwaterexperience.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn about why liars may mimic your body language; why “tend and befriend” is an alternative response to “fight or flight”; and why lakes freeze from the top down, not the bottom up.  Liars imitate the body language of the person they're lying to by Kelsey Donk Lesté-Lasserre, C. (2020). Lying men mimic the body language of other men they are talking to. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264607-lying-men-mimic-the-body-language-of-other-men-they-are-talking-to/  A liar and a copycat: nonverbal coordination increases with lie difficulty | Royal Society Open Science. (2021). Royal Society Open Science. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200839#d1e417  Instead of "Fight or Flight," Women Might "Tend and Befriend" by Reuben Westmaas How to Transform Stress into Courage and Connection. (2015). Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_transform_stress_courage_connection  Lebo, H. (2000, May 17). UCLA Researchers Identify Key Biobehavioral Pattern Used by Women to Manage Stress. UCLA Newsroom. https://web.archive.org/web/20180828074327/http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/UCLA-Researchers-Identify-Key-Biobehavioral-1478  Taylor, S. E. (2012). Tend and befriend theory. In P. A. M. Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology (p. 32–49). Sage Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446249215.n3  Why does a lake freeze from the top down, and not the bottom up? by Cameron Duke Why Does Water Freeze from the Top Down? | Britannica. (2021). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/story/why-does-water-freeze-from-the-top-down  Stewart, R. H. (2008). Introduction to physical oceanography. Texas A & M University. US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2021). What is a thermocline? Noaa.gov. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/thermocline.html  Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.