29 Post Roundup at Dennys Blogs 14 Mar 2010

From Denny: Remember me? You know, the woman who was pining away, waiting for Winter to leave and Spring to come? Yeah, well, the past two weeks here in south Louisiana the tree pollen blast has forced me to practically buy stock in the Kleenex brand of nose tissues. :) With all the fun Spring has sprung on my immune system I had to dial it back and was not able to write as many posts. You know that amusing but true proverbial saying of "Politics is so ugly; it's like making sausage"? Writing this past week has not been much prettier. Lucky you that you don't have blogger video cam! :)

I started keeping up with the news headlines over at Dennys Global Politics, partly to go back and write an opinion piece, partly just to see what's out there across the media spectrum. There are mainstream stories along with the obscure you might not have noticed. The stories are excerpted yet provided with links so you can read in more detail if you prefer.

There are many awesome recipes to enjoy, along with the food video tutorials. There are a few poems and spiritual thoughts to consider. There is a science post about just how much the Chilean earthquake affected the planet, pretty scary stuff. And, of course, my total favorites: lots of rocking good humor posts with funny videos I find while checking in with my social sites. What would life be without friends?



Cartoonists Cajun Whoop A$$ on Everyone - 40 Funny Political Cartoons - 13 Mar 2010

Dennys Popular Poems Roundup 12 Mar 2010

Photo History: 1st Lady Gowns, Michelle Obama Donates Hers

St. Patricks Day Funnies and History - Cheeky Quote Day 10 Mar 2010

Photography: 16 Beautiful Creative Angel Photos

Funny Late Night Comedy Roundup - 8 March 2010

48 Post Roundup: Dennys Blogs 7 Mar 2010




Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earths Day

Step Out into the Unknown with Ease

Shoes in Church poem

A Poem to Think About When You Dream

30 Funny Creative Animal Ads




5 Super Easy Chocolate Desserts: Only 5 Ingredients

Warm Gooey Cheese Fondue 4 Cold Nights

Martha Stewarts 4 Fast Spring Recipes

Unusual Outrageous New Food: Breast Milk Cheese

Chef Mario Batalis Easy 3 Pork Saltimbocca Recipes

Check Out Statistics 4 Real Cost of Fast Food vs. Whole

Chef Jamie Oliver Discovers American Kids Dont Know Veggies



Some of my choices from the day's news, excerpted and with links to full stories, some video clips:

News Headlines Roundup 12 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 11 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 10 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 9 Mar 2010

News Headlines Roundup 8 Mar 2010





7 Funny Quips 10 Mar 2010

13 Funny Quips 9 Mar 2010

Funny Music Video: Hilarious Organized Mayhem

Funny Video: Look, Ma! Eating with No Paws But Real Hands!

Outrageous Funny Video: Procrastination



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Powerful Chilean Earthquake Literally Relocated Cities

From Denny: The GPS guys have taken the measurments and couldn't believe their eyes. The latest 8.8 Chilean earthquake literally shifted several cities to new ground. The city closest to the epicenter, Conception, was moved another 10 feet to the west. The capital city moved almost a foot at 11 inches. And several hundred miles away in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this city was shifted to the west by another inch. This earthquake was truly a mover and shaker of the epic proportions. Is anyone taking note of what this could truly mean?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earths Day

From Denny: This is a fact few of us thought about when we first heard the news of the 8.8 earthquake in Chile. It really does make us wonder about the idea of the exponential curve in relation to a longer period of time how these incidences will add up to effect the planet. What am I talking about? The Earth's day is now just a small amount shorter.

Richard Gross, and another scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, put the pencil to the math. They calculated this recent high magnitude earthquake has now shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. In case you forgot, a microsecond is one-millionth of a second. The length of a day is the time it takes for Earth to complete one rotation: 86,400 seconds or 24 hours.

OK, so how did this earthquake accomplish this feat of shortening Earth's day? It caused the Earth to rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet's axis. Reminds you of one of those Olympic skaters in a spin where they pull up their arms to increase the speed of the spin.

The opposite can happen too. An earthquake "can slow the rotation and lengthen the day - if it redistributes mass away from that axis," Gross said.

Can this small change be permanent? According to Gross the answer is yes. He also commented that a series of high magnitude earthquakes like this one could possible add up to make the day shorter "but these changes are very, very small."

How small are these changes? There are so small that scientists are not able to record them directly. You would be surprised how much of science is not direct but rather indirect observation and recording. Gross also stated that true observations of the length of the day are accurate to five-millionths of a second. What about his estimate? His estimate about the Chilean quake's effect is just a quarter of that span of time.


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8.8 Chilean Earthquake 500 Times More Powerful than Haiti

From Denny: Yesterday, the country of Chile experienced a mind-numbing 8.8 magnitude earthquake. It tore apart over 1.5 million homes, bridges and highways in central Chile. Over 90 aftershocks followed. The 8.8 earthquake was felt 1,800 miles away in Sao Paulo, Brazil to the east.

In the capitol city of Santiago, 200 miles away and to the northeast from the epicenter (which was out at sea off the coast), there was damage:

Santiago airport with smashed windows, collapsed walkways, torn ceilings
Fine Arts Museum, badly damaged
several hospitals, no details as to damage

Chile's main seaport, in Valparaiso about 75 miles from Santiago:

two oil refineries shut down production - to restart large plants like this can take a month.
copper mines shut down production


The city of Concepcion was hardest hit along with the major port city of Talcahuano. With a major port damaged like this it could be difficult to get supplies to those most in need.

Haiti's was a 7.0 magnitude. The point spread doesn't sound like much until you realize that the difference is 500 times greater in ferocity. It's amazing any buildings are standing and more people were not killed. Right now that's about 708 in estimates because the Chilean Navy did not warn coastal villagers of an impending tsunami right after the earthquake. They did not have time to flee to the hills and many died needlessly.

Chile's coastal areas devastated by the large waves:

San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island
The port of Talcahuano
Vichato in the BioBio region

The surge of Pacific Ocean water affected 53 nations as they posted tsunami warnings. Hawaii dodged the negative effects of tsunami waves but they were prepared. They warned and evacuated for the "just in case" scenario. Hilo International Airport was closed as a precaution because it is located on the shore.

By today, it was estimated that over two million people have been displaced from their homes. They have not yet given figues on how many businesses are shut down and how many people are out of work. Like in Haiti, these may prove to be dire times for Chile. Why does the President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, not accept immediate help from other countries like America who are standing by with rescue teams and relief efforts? As it has proven difficult in Haiti to setup and feed three million displaced people, so it will prove a problem in Chile in the coming weeks. It's best to jump on that problem now rather than wait.

For those with electricity in Chile, this is the news they awoke to find about the earthquake, raw news footage:






Assessing the damage done to historical sites:





From ITN News an aerial view of the devastation:







Here is video of looting. Do you think these people watched all the news coverage about Haiti and realized it will be weeks - if ever - before help arrives? Most people would loot for food and supplies too, knowing help may not come in time.






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