Pictures From Historic Northeast Blizzard








































































































');
















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































 $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_saleprice_t +'';
} else {
html += ' $'+ doc.ngstore_price_t +'';
}
html += '
';

$("#ecom_43331 ul.ecommerce_all_img").append(html);




o.totItems++;

}// end for loop
} // end if data.response.numFound != 0

if(o.totItems != o.maxItems){
if(o.defaultItems.length > 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage && !o.searchComplete){
o.doSearchPage();
} else if(!o.searchComplete) {
o.byID = false;
o.doSearch();
}
}// end if
}// end parseResults function

o.trim = function(str) {
return str.replace(/^\s\s*/, '').replace(/\s\s*$/, '');
}

o.doSearchPage = function(){
o.byID = false;

var tempSearch = window.location.search;
var searchTerms ="default";
var temp;

if( tempSearch.substr(0,7) == "?search"){
temp = tempSearch.substr(7).split("&");
searchTerms = temp[0];
} else {
temp = tempSearch.split("&");
for(var j=0;j 0){
o.getItemByID(o.defaultItems.shift());
} else if(o.isSearchPage){
o.doSearchPage();
} else {
o.doSearch();
}

}// end init function

}// end ecommerce object

var store_43331 = new ecommerce_43331();





store_43331.init();
































































Great Energy Challenge Blog













































































































Read More..

After Blizzard, Northeast Begins to Dig Out













The Northeast began the arduous process of cleaning up after a fierce storm swept through the region leaving behind up to three feet of snow in some areas.


By early this morning, 650,000 homes and businesses were without power and at least five deaths were being blamed on the storm: three in Canada, one in New York and one in Connecticut, The Associated Press reported.


The storm dumped snow from New Jersey to Maine, affecting more than 25 million people, with more than two feet falling in areas of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. The Postal Service closed post offices and suspended mail delivery today in New England.


As the storm waned, officials in the hardest hit areas cautioned residents to remain indoors and off the roads to ease the clean-up.


Massachusetts was hard hit by the storm, with more than two feet of snow in Boston and even more in coastal areas. State police and national guard troops helped rescue more than 50 stranded motorists and even helped deliver a baby girl, according to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.


Patrick enacted the first statewide driving ban since the 1978 blizzard, which left 27 inches of snow and killed dozens. The ban was to be lifted at 4 p.m. today, the governor said.


However, Patrick cautioned residents to act with extreme caution even after the ban is over.


"Stay inside and be patient," Patrick said.


In Massachusetts a boy reportedly died of carbon monoxide poisoning as he helped his father shovel snow on Saturday, according to ABCNews.com affiliate WCVB-TV in Boston.


For residents along the coast, the waning snowfall didn't mean the end of the storm. Storm surges along the Massachusetts coastline forced some residents out of their homes Saturday morning.


"We've got 20-foot waves crashing and flooding some homes," Bob Connors on Plum Island told WCVB. "We have power and heat and all that. We just have a very angry ocean. In my 33 years, I've never seen the seas this high."






Darren McCollester/Getty Images











Blizzard Shuts Down Parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts Watch Video









Blizzard 2013: Power Outages for Hundreds of Thousands of People Watch Video









Blizzard 2013: Northeast Transportation Network Shut Down Watch Video





FULL COVERAGE: Blizzard of 2013


In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy declared a state of emergency and closed all roads in the state. The state police responded to more than 1,600 calls over the last 24 hours and the governor called up an additional 270 National Guard members.


"If you're not an emergency personnel that's required to be somewhere, stay home," Malloy said.


Overnight, snow fell at a rate of up to five to six inches per hour in parts of Connecticut. In Milford, more than 38 inches of snow had fallen by this morning.


In Fairfield, Conn. firefighters and police officers on the day shift were unable to make it to work, so the overnight shift remained on duty.


PHOTOS: Blizzard Hits Northeast


The wind and snow started affecting the region during the Friday night commute.


In Cumberland, Maine, the conditions led to a 19-car pile-up and in New York, hundreds of commuters were stranded on the snowy Long Island Expressway. Police and firefighters were still working to free motorists early this morning.


"The biggest problem that we're having is that people are not staying on the main portion or the middle section of the roadway and veering to the shoulders, which are not plowed," said Lt. Daniel Meyer from the Suffolk County Police Highway Patrol.


In New York, authorities are digging out hundreds of cars that got stuck overnight on the Long Island Expressway.


Bob Griffith of Syosset, N.Y., said he tried leave early to escape the storm, but instead ended up stuck in the snow by the side of the road.


"I tried to play it smart in that I started early in the day, when it was raining," said Griffith. "But the weather beat us to the punch."


Suffolk County Executive Steven Bellone said the snow had wreaked havoc on the roadways.


"I saw state plows stuck on the side of the road. I've never seen anything like this before," Bellone said.


However, some New York residents, who survived the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, were rattled by having to face another large and potentially dangerous storm system with hurricane force winds and flooding.


"How many storms of the century can you have in six months?" said Larry Racioppo, a resident of the hard hit Rockaway neighborhood in Queens, New York.


READ: Weather NYC: Blizzard Threatens Rockaways, Ravaged by Sandy


Snowfall Totals


In New York, a little more than 11 inches fell in the city.


By this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said nearly all of the primary roads had been plowed and the department of sanitation anticipated that all roads would be plowed by the end of the day.


"It looks like we dodged a bullet, but keep in mind winter is not over," said Bloomberg.






Read More..

Obama pays tribute to Leon Panetta at the Pentagon chief’s farewell ceremony



In a speech at Fort Myer, Va., for the “Armed Forces Farewell Tribute” to Panetta, the president called the Pentagon chief “a man who hasn’t simply lived up to the American dream but has helped to protect it for all of us.”


He told Panetta, who served as CIA director before taking the helm at the Pentagon, “Your leadership of the CIA will forever be remembered for the b lows that we struck against al-Qaeda” and for “delivering justice to Osama bin Laden.”

Obama added: “Because we believe in opportunity for all Americans, the tenure of Secretary Panetta” as defense chief “will be remembered for historic progress in welcoming more of our fellow citizens to military service.” He referred to the 2011 repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that barred openly gay people from serving in the military, and to the lifting last month of a ban on women in combat positions.

Obama spoke after a ceremony featuring military bands and honor guards, including the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps clad in red coats and tricornered hats.

“I’ve witnessed a new generation of Americans ask themselves what they could do for their country,” Panetta said after being introduced by Obama.

“We’ve kept pressure on al-Qaeda, and we’re going after extremists wherever they may hide,” he said. “We have shown the world — we have shown the world — that nobody attacks the United States of America and gets away with it.”

Panetta formally announced his retirement early last month, and Obama nominated Chuck Hagel, a Republican former senator from Nebraska, to replace him. Hagel’s nomination has run into stiff opposition from Senate Republicans, who accused him of being insufficiently supportive of Israel and soft on Iran during an eight-hour confirmation hearing last week.

“It’s pretty obvious that the political knives were out for Chuck Hagel,” Panetta said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

In one of his final acts as defense secretary, Panetta testified Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee about attacks on U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans in September. Responding to questions, he and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they favored supplying weapons to Syrian rebels, a position that put them at odds with the White House.

Panetta also warned that the United States risks becoming a “second-rate power” if automatic spending cuts known as the “sequester” take effect as currently scheduled March 1 in the absence of a deficit-reduction deal to avert them, the Associated Press reported.

If that happens, he said, the U.S. military would face its worst readiness crisis in more than a decade. A forced budget cut of $42.7 billion from March through September, on top of $487 billion in defense reductions already mandated over the next 10 years, would leave the armed forces “hollow,” Panetta said.

Read More..

Football: Second-half rally sees PSG go six points clear






PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain shook off a lacklustre first half to defeat Bastia 3-1 on Friday and go six points clear at the top of Ligue 1 in a morale-boosting win ahead of their Champions League duty next week.

PSG, who will tackle Valencia on Tuesday in the first leg of their last 16 tie in Europe, moved onto 51 points, taking their recent run to 12 matches without defeat in all competitions.

Jeremy Menez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ezequiel Lavezzi were all on target for PSG although Wahbi Khazri's 83rd-minute free-kick from 30 metres, which made the score 2-1, meant goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu's proud unbeaten record ended at the 947-minute mark.

"We earned and took three points which was our objective," said PSG coach Carlo Ancelotti.

"It's true that the first half wasn't very good, the second half was different. We can look forward to our next match with confidence."

Menez put PSG ahead in the 56th minute with Ibrahimovic, who had started on the bench for the first time in his Ligue 1 career, making it 2-0 with a 71st-minute penalty.

After Khazri's thunderbolt, Argentina international Lavezzi settled PSG's nerves with an 89th-minute goal to put the pressure back on second-place Lyon who welcome Lille on Sunday.

Ancelotti insisted that Ibrahimovic had no arguments over being demoted to the bench.

"It wasn't hard to convince Ibra, he understands that there are always risks of injuries and we need to avoid that," said the coach.

- AFP/de



Read More..

Power put off by mistake, IGI Airport radars go dead

NEW DELHI: Skilled air traffic controllers at IGI Airport averted disaster on Friday afternoon after radar screens at the airport's ATC tower went blank for 45 minutes because electricians on routine maintenance duty had inadvertently switched off the main power button.

The power shutdown caused both primary and back-up radar systems to go dead. These systems give the complete coordinates - such as altitude, speed and horizontal separation - of all aircraft over vast stretches of north India, and are essential guiding tools to avoid mid-air collisions. When the screens went blank, one aircraft was in its final descent over IGI.

ATC officials saved the day by manually bringing in arriving aircraft. All departing aircraft were asked to remain on the ground. An Air India and a Jet Airways aircraft were even given priority landing after the pilots reported fuel shortage. No plane was asked to go around the airport.

The Maharaja just got a firsthand taste of why passengers are not exactly enamoured by its services. On Thursday-Friday midnight, 11 of the 63 staff who were supposed to be present at Delhi's terminal 3 were missing and only 16 of the 25 check-in counters that should have been open were actually functional. As a result, the usual check-in time of two to three minutes per passenger was almost seven to eight minutes.

The airline came to know of this ground reality - something that passengers have been complaining of for years - when the management kicked off a new practice of sending its senior officials as decoy passengers to airports from IGI on Thursday night. The team that went to IGI Airport's terminal 3 gave a detailed report to the management which has now decided to make such surprise checks a regular practice at all airports across the country.

"Our ground handling joint venture agency, AISATS, services a number of airlines. It seems their employees reserve their best for other airlines and not for handling AI flyers. The team found there were no floor walkers at T3 on Thursday-Friday midnight to escort passengers to their aircraft. The check-in time was longer that the global average of two to three minutes," said a source. Wheelchairs, which are required by physically challenged and aged flyers right from the time they alight from their cars at the airport, were to be found at check-in counters!

The airline is also trying to strengthen its other perceived weakness: on time performance.

Read More..

From Our Vault: Busy Postman on Break, 1951


The United States Post Office announced this week that it intends to stop Saturday letter delivery beginning in August, 32 years after Congress mandated a sixth day of mail service.

First class mail volume has been dropping by about five billion pieces annually since 2007. And the USPS operated almost $16 billion dollars in the red in 2012.

In the 1950s, when this photo was taken, the federal agency was more flush with money. Five hundred thousand employees carried 54 billion items when National Geographic magazine published the article "Everyone's Servant, the Post Office" in July of 1954. Mail volume had doubled since the previous decade, and was growing at a rate of about seven percent a year.

This photo from 1951 didn't make it into that article, landing instead in the National Geographic image archive. Working during the postal boom years, this mailman delivering to houses in Hays, Kansas, likely didn't have time to notice the slight.

National Geographic photographer John E. Fletcher explained the mailman's decision to lunch in a mailbox in a note on the back of the photo.

"He told me that a new regulation from the Washington headquarters of the U.S. Post Office required that postmen while on delivery at noontime must stop and have their lunch at the spot, rather than taking time off to go home and eat," Fletcher wrote.

"This mailman told me that each day his wife would drive to this particular corner and meet him and hand him his lunch box," he continued. "The most convenient spot that he could find to eat his lunch was to open a storage mail box, get himself comfortably seated, and eat his lunch right on the street corner."

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of pieces that looks at the news through the lens of the National Geographic photo archives.


Read More..

Blizzard of 2013 May Bring More Than 2 Feet of Snow













A blizzard of possibly historic proportions is set to strike the Northeast, starting today and could bring more than two feet of snow and strong winds that could shut down densely populated cities such as Boston and New York City.


A storm from the west will join forces with one from the south to form a nor'easter that will sit and spin just off the East Coast, affecting more than 43 million Americans. Wind gusts will reach 50 to 60 mph from Philadelphia to Boston.


"[It] could definitely be a historic winter storm for the Northeast," Adrienne Leptich of the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y., said. "We're looking at very strong wind and heavy snow and we're also looking for some coastal flooding."


The snow began falling in New York City shortly before 7 a.m. ET. The snow is expected to mix with some sleet and then turn back into snow after 3 p.m.


Airlines have started shutting down operations between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. at major airports in the New York area as well as in Boston, Portland, Maine, Providence, and other Northeastern airports. More than 4,000 flights have been cancelled on Friday and Saturday, according to FlightAware. Airlines hope to resume flights by Saturday afternoon.


New York City is expecting up to 14 inches, which is expected to start this morning with the heaviest amounts falling at night and into Saturday. Wind gusts of 55 mph are expected in New York City and Cape Cod, Mass., could possibly see 75 mph gusts.


PHOTOS: Northeast Braces for Snowstorm








Weather Forecast: Northeast Braces for Monster Blizzard Watch Video









Winter Storm to Hit Northeast With Winds and Snow Watch Video







Boston, Providence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., and other New England cities canceled school today. Boston and other parts of New England could see more than 2 feet of snow by Saturday.


Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency Friday afternoon and announced a ban on all traffic from roads after 4 p.m. It is believed that the last time the state enacted such a ban was during the blizzard of 1978.


Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible from New Jersey to Long Island, N.Y., and into New England coastal areas. Some waves off the coast could reach more than 20 feet.


"Stay off the streets of our city. Basically, stay home," Boston Mayor Tom Menino warned Thursday.


Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of New Jersey and New York's Long Island, as well as portions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, including Hartford, New Haven, Conn., and Providence. The warnings extended into New Hampshire and Maine.


To the south, Philadelphia was looking at a possible 4 to 6 inches of snow.


Thousands of flights have already been canceled in anticipation of the storm. Amtrak said its Northeast trains will stop running this afternoon.


Bruce Sullivan of the National Weather Service says travel conditions will deteriorate fairly rapidly Friday night.


"The real concern here is there's going to be a lot of strong winds with this system and it's going to cause considerable blowing and drifting of snow," he said.


Parts of New York, still reeling from October's Superstorm Sandy, are still using tents and are worried how they will deal with the nor'easter.


"Hopefully, we can supply them with enough hot food to get them through before the storm starts," Staten Island hub coordinator Donna Graziano said.


New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said plows and 250,000 tons of salt were being put on standby.


"We hope forecasts are exaggerating the amount of snow, but you never can tell," Bloomberg said Thursday.


Residents of the Northeast have already begun to hit stores for groceries and tools to fight the mounting snow totals.


The fire department was called in to a grocery store in Salem, Mass., because there were too many people in the store Thursday afternoon trying to load up their carts with essential items.


"I'm going to try this roof melt stuff for the first time," Ian Watson of Belmont, Mass., said. "Just to prevent the ice dam. ... It's going be ugly on that roof."


ABC News' Max Golembo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.



Read More..

Tennis: Injured Li Na out of Qatar Open






DOHA: China's Li Na has pulled out of next week's $2.3 million Qatar Open after failing to recover from the ankle injury she suffered in her Australian Open final defeat to Victoria Azarenka.

"Li Na has withdrawn from QatarTennis due to her ankle injury from the Australian Open final. #WTA #tennis," the WTA said on its Twitter account.

The Qatar Open starts on Monday.

- AFP/de



Read More..

Nanded police book Pravin Togadia for hate speech

AURANGABAD: The Nanded police on Thursday booked Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Pravin Togadia under various sections of the IPC for allegedly delivering a hate speech at Bhokar town in the district last month.

Deputy superintendent of police (Bhokar), Yashwant Solanke, told TOI on Thursday that Togadia is accused of making the provocative speech was made during a VHP programme at Bhokar on January 22. After examining excerpts of his speech, the Bhokar police inspector Pandit Munde registered a complaint against the VHP leader.

Solanke said that Togadia has been booked under Section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and Section 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes). Inspector Pandit Munde, in-charge of the Bhokar police station, is investigating, said Solanke.

PTI adds: The Centre asked the Maharashtra government to book Togadia if he was found to be violating laws after probing the charges of hate speech.

The Maharashtra government ordered an inquiry into the speech even as state minorities affairs minister Naseem Khan demanded that a case be filed against Togadia. Minister of state for home R P N Singh said if Togadia's speech is inflammatory, the state government must take action against him.

Read More..

Severed Heads Were Sacrifices in Ancient Mexico


Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of more than 150 skulls from an ancient shrine in central Mexico—evidence of one of the largest mass sacrifices of humans in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.

The skulls, many facing east, lay beneath a crude, slightly elevated mound of crushed stone on what was once an artificial island in a vast shallow lake, now completely dry.

"The site is barely a bump on the horizon in the middle of nowhere," said lead archaeologist Christopher Morehart, of Georgia State University. And that was baffling. Previous evidence of such sacrifices came from grand pyramids in large ceremonial centers.

The discovery suggests that the site—near the town of Xaltocan (named after the ancient lake)—played a significant role in the political turmoil during the period between the years 650 and 800. The great city of Teotihuacan, only nine miles (15 kilometers) away, had suddenly begun to collapse, and the power it once exerted over the region was slipping away. Many experts believe this turn of events was triggered by a massive drought.

What followed was a time of  "political, cultural, and demographic change," according to Morehart, a National Geographic research grantee. As people left Teotihuacan and moved to the surrounding areas, new communities formed and new leaders competed for power. "There's a good chance that the sacrifices are related to these competitions," Morehart said.

The sacrificed individuals could even have been war captives—often the case in Mesoamerican cultures. The site itself was probably not a battlefield, though. It was a sacred space that was specially prepared for rituals.

The people who lived in this area appear to have performed elaborately choreographed rituals at the shrine before the fall of Teotihuacan, but they didn't include human sacrifice. Because of its water-bound location and the presence of freshwater springs nearby, the shrine was likely the site of ceremonies that petitioned gods associated with rain and fertility. Artifacts uncovered include clay images of Tlaloc, a rain god.

The rituals began to include sacrifices, though, as power struggles gripped the parched region. Morehart and his colleagues from the National University of Mexico believe that victims were first killed and dismembered. The body parts may then have been thrown into the lake, while the heads were carefully arranged and buried. Incense was burned during this ceremony, along with the resinous wood of pine trees. Flowers added their own perfume to the fragrant smoke, and foods such as ritually burned maize were presented as additional offerings.

Over the following centuries, new peoples arrived in the area and political power ebbed and shifted, yet the sacred nature of the site persisted. Morehart and his team found evidence for rituals here during both the Aztec and colonial periods, and they even came across a recent offering.

"As we were digging we found a black plastic bag. Inside was a hardboiled egg, a black candle, and some photos of people," he said. "It's a fascinating example of continued ritual activity in a place despite dramatic changes in social, political, and cultural contexts."


Read More..