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Sunday, December 16, 2007

Winter Blast Indiana - Road Condition

WTHR-TV
updated 9:13 a.m. ET Dec. 16, 2007

Indianapolis - The snow arrived Saturday morning, and it was only the beginning of a pre-Christmas winter blast.

A Winter Storm Warning is in effect for much of Central Indiana through Sunday afternoon. Several inches are expected in the metro area by Saturday afternoon, with a sleet/snow mix expected later. Heavy snow is expected overnight with totals as high as 17 inches in areas to the north of Marion County.

We'll see the first band of snow pass through Central Indiana Saturday morning, with about one to three inches falling, some areas picking up four. SkyTrak Weather says we should see a break this afternoon before freezing rain, sleet and snow develop for tonight and early Sunday morning.

Wind gusts to 35 and 45 mph on Sunday morning could make for blizzard like conditions. Areas that see all snow and no ice could pick up 10-17 inches. This area includes just to the north of I-70. Along and south of I-70 6-12 inches is possible along with significant freezing rain and sleet. Our far southern counties will see about 4-8 inches due to a lot of ice and rain. Some areas in Hamilton County could see the greater snow amounts.

CLOSINGS AND DELAYS

Stay tuned to Eyewitness News and WTHR.com for the latest updates on the storm, as well as closings and delays. Sign up for your Personal Forecast from WTHR.com to stay on top of the weather. And when it's all over, head outside and snap a few pictures for our photo gallery.

Ice wreaks havoc on roadways

Around 3:00 pm, the snowfall that blanketed the area turned to a light rain. By the late evening hours, the rain had begun to freeze on windshields in the downtown area, and some roads on the north side had become icy. The far northwest corner of Interstate 465 was closed around 9:45 Saturday night, and two southbound lanes of the outerbelt near I-70 on the east side closed due to a crash shortly before 11 pm.

In Carmel, a van crashed into a pond at 141st Street and Towne Road, apparently trapping four people inside. Crews transported the victims to the hospital and remain on the scene. There is no report on the condition of the passengers, which witnesses say included an adult and three children.

Further north, there were reports of ice on I-65 toward Lebanon causing at least one accident. At 11 pm, the freezing rain and ice extended north from south of Indianapolis to Frankfort. North of the rain was heavy snow. Meteorologist Jude Redfield says the freezing rain will continue until 2 am before temperatures get cold enough for the precipitation to turn to snow. The storm is now forecast to leave 5 to 9 inches of snow on the ground around central Indiana, including what fell Saturday morning.

In addition to the precipitation, winds picking up to between 25 and 40 miles an hour could create blizzard-like conditions in the morning into the early afternoon.

Snow gives way to ice in the afternoon

At around 9:30 am, traffic on I-65 was smooth, although the snowfall was picking up and the wind got stronger. State police reported several slide-offs on different parts of the interstates and in the metro area.

State and county road crews started working Friday to prepare the roads. In Indianapolis, some 75 Department of Public Works drivers are planning for 12-hour shifts and began dropping salt on roads before the snow started falling. The state used liquid salt brine to get ahead of predictions for impending ice. Around 60 INDOT trucks will be out, as well as 300 in the central Indiana area.

"Typically the worst is when the snow is falling heavily. So take a look outside the window and if possible try to squeeze your Christmas shopping in when it's not falling from the sky," said Paul Whitmore, Department of Public Works.

Many drivers were heeding that advice as they headed to the mall or grocery store early Saturday morning. Some hardware stores reported that they had already sold out of snowblowers.

INDOT plans to have Hoosier Helpers on patrol on the Interstate system within Marion County to assist motorists that get stranded in the storm.

Anderson vehicle order

Anderson Mayor Kevin S. Smith has asked all city residents to remove their vehicles from city streets, if possible, in anticipation of a major snowstorm that is expected to develop Saturday. If all vehicles can be moved to driveways or other private property, the city's snow emergency task force will be better able to clear streets and roadways. See the city website for updates.

Emergency declarations

Indiana has a new standardized system to report across the state during severe weather and other hazardous situations if it includes snowstorms and tornadoes, floods, fires, utility failures, major accidents, public health energies and even acts of terrorism.

Before this year, each of Indiana's 92 counties reported conditions differently making it difficult to give an appropriate response in a timely manner. Now the system includes one easy to read statewide map that can be posted here and allows for quick emergency declarations meaning a quicker response for those who need help.

ISP offers winter driving tips

The combination of snow, freezing rain, ice and wind can cause driving conditions to change quickly. To help Hoosiers prepare for this winter storm, the Indiana State Police offers the following safety tips.

Be prepared:

  • Before traveling, check the forecast and let someone know your travel route.
  • Keep your gas tank at least half-full.
  • Carry a winter driving kit that should include blankets, flashlight, extra batteries, a brightly colored cloth, sand (or cat litter), shovel, candle, matches, non-perishable high calorie food, first aid kit, and jumper cables.
  • Slow down on snow/ice covered roads.
  • Allow extra time to arrive at your destination.
  • Clear all windows of ice and snow and remove snow from hood, roof, and lights.
  • Use extra caution when driving across bridges, underpasses, shaded areas and intersections where ice is slow to melt.
  • Avoid abrupt stops and starts. Slow down gradually and keep wheels turning to avoid loosing traction.
  • Use low beam headlights to decrease glare from ice.

Should you become stranded:

  • Don't leave your car. It's the best protection you have.
  • Tie a brightly colored cloth to your antenna.
  • Roll down your window a small amount.
  • Keep the exhaust pipe free of blockage to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.
  • Don't panic. An idling car uses only one gallon of gas per hour.

A four-wheel drive vehicle may keep you from being stuck in deep snow or aid in acceleration during slippery road conditions, but it will not allow you to stop any quicker. Slow down and allow yourself plenty of stopping distance.

For Indiana road conditions between December 1 and April 1, call 317-232-8298 or 800-261-7623 or visit the state police web site.



Thursday, December 13, 2007

Changing climate runs hot and cold

By Adam Morton
December 14, 2007

IT HAS been the seventh warmest year on record, part of the hottest decade on record, but 2007, or at least its first 11 months, was also a time of climactic extremes.

It included record-low ice levels in the Arctic and a Western Australian summer five degrees hotter than average, yet also Australia's coldest June in recorded history.

According to a preliminary World Meteorological Organisation report released in Bali overnight, overall rising temperatures contrasted with an Australian June 1.5 degrees below average and an unusually cold South American winter that brought winds, blizzards and snowfall in unlikely places.

Other remarkable climatic events included the development of La Nina - a drop in sea surface temperature in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific by more than half a degree - and devastating floods, drought and storms across the globe.

Sea levels continued to rise substantially faster than the 20th century average of 1.7 millimetres a year - the current level is about 20 centimetres higher than the 1870 estimate, rising at about three millimetres a year since 1993. And the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74 degrees since 1900, increasing at a much faster rate in the second half of the century.

The report, including data to the end of November, comes a month after the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change described the evidence for man-made global warming as "unequivocal". It projected global temperatures increasing 1.1 to 6.4 degrees and sea levels rising by 18 to 59 centimetres this century, coinciding with worsening glacial melting, extreme weather conditions, water stress, hunger and disease.

The analysis is principally based on data collected by the UK Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia. A second set of data in the report, by the US Department of Commerce, suggests 2007 may be the fifth warmest year globally.

Scientists yesterday said the record pace of ice melt in the Arctic Circle - allowing ships to sail for the first time through the Canadian Northwest Passage - was the latest sign that climate change was accelerating.

"In 2007, we had off-the-charts warming," University of Washington oceanographer Michael Steele said.

Donald Perovich of the US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in New Hampshire, said an ice sheet about the size of the US covered the North Pole in the summer of 1980, but this northern summer the ice would not have covered the states west of the Mississippi River. As temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans have risen, warmer water has moved into the Arctic Ocean, helping melt the polar icecap, which this year floated in water about 3.5 degrees warmer than the historical average.

As more of the Arctic Ocean has been exposed, it has absorbed the extra sunrays, further hastening the rise in temperature.

Mr Perovich said: "It's a classic positive feedback. And these feedbacks are important from a climate perspective, because they can take small changes and amplify them."

Julianna Fessenden of the Los Alamos National Laboratory said it would be another 10 years before the first geosequestration plant allowing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants to be stored under ground, comes online.

With REUTERS


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65th Annual Golden Globe Nominations

DRAMA
"American Gangster"
"Atonement"
"Eastern Promises"
"The Great Debaters"
"Michael Clayton"
"No Country For Old Men"
"There Will Be Blood"

COMEDY
"Across the Universe"
"Charlie Wilson's War"
"Hairspray"
"Juno"
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

ACTOR (DRAMA)
George Clooney - "Michael Clayton"
Daniel Day-Lewis - "There Will Be Blood"
James McAvoy - "Atonement"
Viggo Mortensen - "Eastern Promises"
Denzel Washington - "American Gangster

ACTRESS (DRAMA)
Cate Blanchett - "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
Julie Christie - "Away From Her"
Jodie Foster - "The Brave One"
Angelina Jolie - "A Mighty Heart"
Keira Knightley - "Atonement"

ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Johnny Depp - "Sweeney Todd"
Ryan Gosling - "Lars and the Real Girl"
Tom Hanks - "Charlie Wilson's War"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Savages"
John C. Reilly - "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"

SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody - "Juno"
Ethan Coen and Joel Coen -"No Country for Old Men"
Christopher Hampton - "Atonement"
Ronald Hardwood - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Aaron Sorkin - "Charlie Wilson's War"

ANIMATION
"The Bee Movie"
"Ratatouille"
"The Simpsons Movie"

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"
"The Kite Runner"
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
"Lust, Caution"
"Persepolis"

ORIGINAL SCORE
"Into the Wild"
"Grace is Gone"
"The Kite Runner"
"Atonement"
"Eastern Promises"

TV
ACTOR (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Alec Baldwin - "30 Rock"
Steve Carell - "The Office"
David duchovny - "Californication"
Ricky Gervais - "The Office"
Lee Pace - "Pushing Daisies"

ACTRESS (MUSICAL OR COMEDY)
Christina Applegate
America Ferrara
Tina Fey
Anna Friel
Mary Louise Parker

MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
"The Company"
"Five Days"
"The State Within"
"Longford"

ACTRESS (MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE)
Bryce Dallas Howard
Debra Messing
Queen Latifah
Sissy Spacek
Ruth Wilson

ACTOR (MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE)
Adam Beach
Ernest Borgnine
Jim Broadbent
Jason Isaacs
James Nesbitt

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Rose Byrne
Rachel Griffith
Katherine Heigl
Samantha Morton
Anna Paquin
Jamie Pressly

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ted Danson
Kevin Dillon
Jeremy Piven
Andy Serkis
William Shatner
Donald Sutherland

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Bobby Petrino resigns as Falcons coach after 13 games, heads to Arkansas

Bobby Petrino resigns as Falcons coach after 13 games, heads to Arkansas

ATLANTA - Bobby Petrino resigned as Atlanta Falcons coach on Tuesday after only 13 games with the NFL team, and within hours returned to the college ranks as coach at the University of Arkansas.

"Today was a day of decision," Petrino said. "It was difficult on one side, very easy on the other. It was difficult to leave Atlanta, the staff, players, fans. The timing of it was probably the thing that made it most difficult. Coming to Arkansas was the easy part."

Petrino left the University of Louisville to become Falcons coach in January for a US$24-million, five-year contract, largely because Atlanta felt he could help star quarterback Michael Vick reach his full potential.

However, Vick came under investigation for a grisly dogfighting operation that eventually led him to plead guilty to federal charges. He was sentenced on Monday to 23 months in prison without ever taking a snap for Petrino.

That night, Atlanta lost its fourth straight game 34-14 to the New Orleans Saints and hours later Petrino left the team with a 3-10 record.

Other than confirming his resignation, the Falcons declined further comment on Petrino until a Wednesday news conference with owner Arthur Blank and general manager Rich McKay.

There was no immediate word who would take over as head coach for the final three games.

Petrino was hired at Arkansas to succeed Houston Nutt, who stepped down two weeks ago and became the head coach at University of Mississippi.

After losing Vick, Petrino tried three other starting quarterbacks without success. The Falcons are assured of the 32nd non-winning season in their 42-year NFL history.

Petrino's stint was one of the shortest for a non-interim coach since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. Pete McCulley was fired after starting 1-8 with San Francisco in 1978, and Sid Gillman lasted only 10 games in his second stint as San Diego coach, going 4-6 in 1971 before quitting.

Petrino assembled one of college football's highest-scoring offences at Louisville, but the Falcons were anemic without Vick. They also were plagued by injuries on the offensive line, which forced them to start two players who weren't even drafted out of college.

The resignation had to be a major surprise to Blank, who fired Jim Mora just two seasons after he led the Falcons to the NFC championship game, and lured Petrino with a lucrative contract.

Before Monday's game, Blank said he felt better than ever about his decision to hire Petrino given all the adversity the team faced this season.

But there were signs of dissension, especially in the way Petrino dealt with his players.

He ran the team with an aloof style, feeling no reason to share his decisions on personnel with the affected players. He could walk through the locker room without speaking to anyone and was openly criticized by two of the team's stars, Pro Bowlers Alge Crumpler and DeAngelo Hall.

Petrino drew the ire of the veterans with his decision to cut nose tackle Grady Jackson, one of the team's most productive defensive linemen, during the bye week. Quarterback Joey Harrington was clearly perturbed a few weeks ago when, after leading the Falcons to two straight wins, he heard from the media that Petrino still considered injury prone Byron Leftwich the starter.


Bobby Petrino

Friday, December 7, 2007

News fitness, debt, cell phone, travel, love, seductive, kids : Pearl Habour Day Anniversary

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Keyword : fitness, debt, cell phone, travel, love, seductive, kids, woman, money, affiliate

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.

The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.

These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.

However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.


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Keyword : fitness, debt, cell phone, travel, love, seductive, kids, woman, money, affiliate




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