A Little Friday File Fun (05/08)

May 8, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - They say that a picture is worth a thousand words...

Well, here’s a couple of thousand…

Now that the worst of the Swine Flu scare appears to be behind us (though there are those who say it could make a comeback in the fall), Time Magazine has been good enough to chronicle what it terms the “Top 10 Panics.”  MORE at http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896348_1896354,00.html


This is an interesting “front page” perspective of the world.   This is really interesting.   MORE at http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Here's something that should end badly...and probably will....

If you can't see the above video, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uAcmrUEp2U

Greedy or stupid?   Maybe a little bit of both?  You make the call. 

If you can't see the above video, try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAzrTM4aHfE

And here's another thousand...  

Here's a pretty cool video camera…check out these baby owls:   http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Wildlife_Cam.html

And here's another thousand...

- - - Near Miami, Florida , Nancy Simoes has found a message from - well, at least OF - God in an unusual place; some fried salami - - - seems that Nancy was cooking fried salami when she noticed the word "GOD" on the meat - - - you can see it at http://www.wsbtv.com/2009/0506/19383793_240X180.jpg 

And here's another thousand...

- - - In Houston, Texas , an as-yet-unnamed man attacked a 27-year-old man here - - - and stole his car - - - police gave chase, but the man wrecked the stolen car and made his escape on foot - - - on the other hand, he left his cell phone in the car he abandoned - - - and if that wasn't helpful enough, left a picture of himself on the cell phone - - - you can see him at http://www.chron.com/photos/2009/05/06/16530133/260xStory.jpg

TRIVIAL PURSUITS

In 1978 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began using men's, as well as women's, names to identify hurricanes.   But the organization's practice of using human names dates back only to 1953.   How were they named prior to that?

According to theNationalHurricanCenter, for several hundred years many hurricanes in theWest Indieswere named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. Ivan R. Tannehill describes in his book "Hurricanes" the major tropical storms of recorded history and mentions many hurricanes named after saints. For example, there was "Hurricane Santa Ana" which struck Puerto Rico with exceptional violence on July 26, 1825, and "San Felipe" (the first) and "San Felipe" (the second) which hit Puerto Rico on September 13 in both 1876 and 1928.

Tannehill also tells of Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist who began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the l9th century.

An early example of the use of a woman's name for a storm was in the novel "Storm" by George R. Stewart, published by Random House in 1941, and since filmed by Walt Disney. During World War II this practice became widespread in weather map discussions among forecasters, especially Air Force and Navy meteorologists who plotted the movements of storms over the wide expanses of thePacific Ocean.

In 1953, the United States abandoned a confusing two-year old plan to name storms by a phonetic alphabet (Able, Baker, Charlie) when a new, international phonetic alphabet was introduced. That year, theUnited Statesbegan using female names for storms.

The practice of naming hurricanes solely after women came to an end in 1978 when men's and women's names were included in the Eastern North Pacific storm lists. In 1979, male and female names were included in lists for the Atlantic andGulf ofMexico.

This year's names are online at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

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