Biden visiting Pa., where flood protection sought (AP)

ALLENTOWN, Pa. ? Epic flooding that damaged or destroyed thousands of Pennsylvania homes and businesses last week has renewed old questions about the lack of flood protection for stricken communities along the Susquehanna River, one of the nation's most flood-prone waterways.

Congress' failure to deliver on promised hazard-mitigation funding may wind up taking blame for some of the devastation in northeastern Pennsylvania, being visited Friday by Vice President Joe Biden.

Experts say a massive levee system that shielded the city of Wilkes-Barre and its riverfront suburbs likely made things worse downstream and upstream, where record floodwaters swamped homes and businesses after heavy rainfall from remnants of Tropical Storm Lee.

"I'm fearful that the levees that have been built are complicating things downstream," said Helena Fisher, who lost nearly everything on the first floor of her home downstream in Bloomsburg, where the Susquehanna crested at an all-time high.

"All we're doing is sending it on to the next community," she said.

Wilkes-Barre's $175 million system of dikes and floodwalls, which was strengthened in response to the remnants of 1972's Hurricane Agnes, prevented tens of millions of dollars in property damage from Lee. Yet, nearly a decade after construction on the levee system ended, Congress has yet to appropriate more than $15 million of the $23 million it had authorized years ago for property buyouts and flood mitigation projects ? all of which were intended to reduce the levees' impact on low-lying, unprotected municipalities.

"The program has stalled due to lack of funding by Congress," said Jim Brozena, executive director of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority, which maintains the levee system and heads the mitigation plan.

Experts say levees can worsen flooding miles downstream by constricting the channel through which water flows, resulting in increased velocity and higher crests. Levees also pose a problem for upstream towns by acting as a choke point or valve, allowing the water to back up, said Rick Weisman, a professor of hydraulic engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem.

Engineers concluded years ago that Wilkes-Barre's newly raised dikes, when paired with an Agnes-level flood, would send an additional foot of water into unprotected homes and businesses. The mitigation plan, which covers 53 communities in five counties, was supposed to offset the heightened risk, at least partly.

But only $7 million has been appropriated and spent since 1996. And funding has all but dried up, a function of the recent ban on federal earmarks ? those home-state projects that critics deride as wasteful ? and the nation's budget woes.

Noting the visit by Biden, who spent his boyhood in nearby Scranton, Brozena said he hopes the funding issue will be addressed.

The mitigation program has paid for several improvements, including a flood-modeling program, flood-proofing of a sewage treatment plant, and a telephone warning system, as well as the acquisition and demolition of 20 to 25 properties.

But more than 600 properties remain on a priority list. Even at full funding, the program would yield perhaps 100 to 150 additional acquisitions, not nearly enough to meet demand.

Some residents don't want to be bought out ? they want a floodwall.

In hard-hit Plymouth Township, just downstream from the levee system, residents had begged to be protected by the dikes. But a cost-benefit analysis by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers excluded the township, and other nearby communities, from consideration; it would have cost more to extend flood protection to them than the properties were worth.

Given last week's deluge and serious floods in 2004, 2005 and 2006, Plymouth Township Supervisor Gale Conrad called for a fresh look at the economics.

"The levee is absolutely wonderful for those that are protected by it. For those who are not protected by it, it's a whole different situation," she said. "Instead of repetitive flood damage payouts to the tune of millions and millions, wouldn't it make sense to just get everybody protected by the levee?"

Conrad said constituents who have endured repeated floods, some of them while awaiting buyouts, are at the end of their rope.

"They've already hollered and cried and begged and worked all of that emotion out. Now it's a feeling of emptiness and in some cases they are ready to give up on life. I've heard that."

There are 56.7 miles of federally constructed levees in Pennsylvania, including many in densely populated Wyoming Valley places including Wilkes-Barre, Kingston, Edwardsville, Exeter, Plymouth, Swoyersville and Forty Fort.

Freshman U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., whose district includes flooded towns up and down the Susquehanna, said he plans to meet with the leadership of the Army Corps to talk about, among other things, "the unintended consequences" of the Wyoming Valley levee system.

The first federally funded levee protecting the Wyoming Valley was built in response to a 1936 flood and held for more than four decades. Then, in 1972, Agnes dumped more than a foot of rain on northeastern Pennsylvania, causing $1 billion in damage as the Susquehanna topped the 36-foot dikes. It was, at the time, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Despite a promise from President Richard Nixon that "we'll fix this and it will never happen again" ? and a 1979 plan by the Army Corps to strengthen the levee system ? nothing happened until January 1996, when the river came perilously close to spilling over the dikes again.

This time, Congress authorized funding to raise the levees by 3 to 5 feet. Work began in 1997 and was completed in 2003.

Last week, the system performed better than advertised.

Designed to withstand a crest of 41 feet, the levees held back a river that rose to 42.66 feet ? nearly 2 feet higher than after Agnes. The Susquehanna didn't go over the dikes because engineers had built in a margin of safety to account for waves, bridge openings and other variables. Tens of thousands of residents in a dozen towns were spared.

___

Associated Press writer Genaro C. Armas in Bloomsburg contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110916/ap_on_re_us/us_lee_flooding_levees

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Health and Fitness Talk ? Too Much Weight Can Cause Diabetes

Researchers from the University of Michigan have stated that Type 2 diabetes outbreak in the United States can grow larger than previously stated by scientist. ?We have known for a long time that being overweight can increase the chances of a person getting diabetes.

This is becoming a problem in this day and age with the increase in obese teenagers and children who have a longer ?obese? life ahead of them and are sure to suffer the consequences of this. ?Scientists have declared that the relationship between type 2 diabetes and weight is just as similar to lung cancer and smoking. ?Dr. Joyce Lee who is a pediatrician specializing in Endocrinology at the University of Michigan stated that, ?The amount of excess weight that you carry and the number of years for which you carry it can drastically increase your risk of diabetes. ??We know that, due to the childhood obesity epidemic, younger generations of Americans are becoming heavier much earlier in their life and are carrying extra weight for longer periods over their lifetimes,? said Lee.

The study was conducted on 8,000 kids and teens and measured how far above a certain mass index (BMI) they were at and for how long. The conclusions showed that the kids with a BMI of 25 or more or 35 or more had a higher chance of getting diabetes. ?In other words those with a BMI of 35 or more who carried it for over 10 years were deemed to have the equivalent of 100 years of excess BMI and Hispanic and black participants had a larger chance of getting diabetes that Caucasians with the equal amount of excess weight over the years. ?They also concluded that Hispanics and blacks were twice as likely to come down with diabetes that Caucasians.

?

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Source: http://www.healthandfitnesstalk.com/too-much-weight-can-cause-diabetes/

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Reupholstering furniture ideas | My Home Improvement

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World's Best Squash Stars Confirmed for World Open in Rotterdam ...

A star-studded cast featuring the world?s best players will line up in the?World Open Squash 2011, the richest ever event in world squash which will take place in?Rotterdam, from 28 October to 6 November.

England?s world number one?Nick Matthew will be hoping to become the first man for 15 years to retain the sport?s most prized title, while Malaysian superstar?Nicol David, also ranked one in the world, will be aiming to become the first to win the women?s trophy for a sixth time. Former world champions?Ramy Ashour,?Amr Shabana,?David Palmer,?Thierry Lincou and?Rachael Grinham ??all of whom are also former world number ones ??are also among the entrants for the biggest squash championship ever.

Dutch interest in the?world?s?premier event, which features the 112 best men and 72?best?women in the world, is led by national champions?Laurens Jan Anjema and?Natalie Grinham, who are seeded to reach the last 16 of the most important squash event of the year.?Anjema,?28 years old from the Hague, celebrated a fine start?to?the new squash season by reaching the quarter finals of the prestigious?Australian Open as an unseeded player, before only narrowly losing out in the final of the?Colombian Open, and will be looking to surpass his seeding.

Anjema?s compatriot Grinham,?from Almere,?has?already reached the?final of the?World Open?four times,?in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009,?was ranked number two in the world for 30 months between 2007 and 2010,?and?is considered to be one of the biggest challengers?to?hot favourite David despite her?current low?ranking?of 13. The 33-year old two-time European Champion?returned to competitive action a year ago after giving birth to son Kieran and is looking for the highly-sought-after World Open title that?has so far eluded?her.

The two notable absentees on the entry lists?are Dutch legend?and former World Champion?Vanessa Atkinson, still ranked number ten in the world despite retiring from professional squash over four months ago, and America?s?Amanda Sobhy, the 2010 Junior World Champion who is ranked world number 20 in the world but has just started her first year at Harvard University.

The draw for the World Open Squash 2011 ??which offers a total prize fund of?US$ 418,000, a record in squash?? will be made in Rotterdam on?Monday 10th?October?at a special press conference featuring?Ahmed Aboutaleb, the mayor of Rotterdam, and representatives of the governing bodies?PSA and?WISPA.

The first six days (28th?Oct?to?2nd?Nov) of the most prestigious squash championship on the?PSA and?WISPA World Tours will take place at the renowned?Victoria Squash club in Rotterdam, the final stages (3rd?to?6th?Nov) will be played on a full ASB Glass Court which will be erected on the podium of the spectacular?New Luxor Theatre in the Dutch City of Sports.

More information can be found on the official tournament site http://www.worldopensquash2011.com.

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Source: http://squashstars.com/world%E2%80%99s-best-squash-stars-confirmed-for-world-open-in-rotterdam/

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Turn your iPhone or iPad into a mobile guitar amp (Yahoo! News)

New mobile app and adapter plug get you shreddin' like Slash without the expensive studio or funny hat

Guitarists on the go rejoice.?Line 6 just released the Mobile In adaptor that plugs into your guitar on one end and your?iPhone or?iPad on the other. With their free Mobile POD?app on your iOS device, you can then access traditional guitar effects that normally require amps, cabinets, stompboxes and racks.

Want to shred like Van Halen? Settings can be tweaked to get the sound you want and then saved as a preset. The app features over 10,000 presets ready to go. You can also access your iTunes library directly from the app and play along with your favorite songs. There is also a tuning fork feature for prepping your guitar before you cut loose.

For you gear heads out there, Line 6 has a more technical description:

Mobile In supports up to 24-bit/48 kHz digital audio. The Guitar input features 110 dB dynamic range. The stereo Line input, which is perfect for sending keyboard audio or any other standard mono or stereo line-level audio source to your iPhone or iPad, has 98 dB dynamic range. Mobile In is...for use with any CoreAudio guitar apps including GarageBand for iPad.

Be aware before you buy, though, that the adaptor works only with the iPhone 4, iPad and?iPad 2. Those of you with iPods and earlier generation iPhones are stuck playing acoustically.

[via?Engadget]

Article by Dan O'Halloran

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110916/tc_yblog_technews/turn-your-iphone-or-ipad-into-a-mobile-guitar-amp

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Space probe detects a planet with a double sunset

WASHINGTON | Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:27pm EDT

WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - When the day ends on planet Kepler-16b there is a double sunset, scientists reported on Thursday in the journal Science.

In a scene reminiscent of science fiction, researchers using observations from NASA's Kepler spacecraft have detected a distant planet orbiting two waltzing stars, the first time such a phenomenon has been confirmed.

"This is really a stunning measurement by Kepler," said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a co-author of the study. "The real exciting thing is there's a planet sitting out there orbiting around these two stars."

Binary stars -- two suns turning around each other -- have been seen before, and astronomers have suspected planets exist around them, but Kepler's observations are the first to confirm it.

The gravitational pull of two stars, even stars like the relatively small ones at the heart of this stellar system, would be quite different from the gravity exerted by just one star, Boss said by telephone.

Kepler's mission is to scour our section of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets in the so-called "habitable zone" that is not too close and not too far away from the stars they orbit.

LIKE LUKE SKYWALKER'S HOME?

The spacecraft does this by finding stars whose light periodically gets dimmer, which means there is an orbiting astronomical body -- a planet -- passing between the star and Kepler's instruments. This is known as a planetary transit.

What made this find so eye-popping was that the stars were eclipsing each other as first one and then the other got in the way. And then a third eclipse indicated a planet was part of the system.

If the notion of a planet with two suns seems familiar, it may be because it was displayed in the earliest "Star Wars" film on the fictional planet Tatooine, home of Luke Skywalker.

Tatooine was a rocky, desert planet, but Kepler-16b is a cool gas giant, Boss and other researchers said.

Because both of its suns are smaller and cooler than our sun, Kepler-16b would be quite cold, with a surface temperature of around minus 100 to minus 150 degrees F (minus 73 to minus 101 degrees Celsius), the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a statement. The center's Josh Carter is co-author of the study.

Kepler-16b is similar to Jupiter in size and mass, a cold gas giant that orbits its two suns every 229 days at a distance of 65 million miles (104.6 million km). That is roughly the same distance as Venus' orbit, compared to Earth's 365-day orbit around the sun at a distance of about 93 million miles (149.7 million km).

This newly detected planet is 200 light-years from Earth and is not thought to harbor life. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km), the distance light travels in a year.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko, Washington; editing by Anthony Boadle)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/9MHWprVcQxQ/us-space-sunsets-idUSTRE78E5BL20110915

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adidas Skateboarding in Greece - Skateboard Videos - Extreme.com ...

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    Avoiding fatal responses to flu infection

    ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2011) ? Most of the time, being ill with the flu is little more than a nuisance. Other times, it can spark an exaggerated immune response and turn deadly. Researchers reporting in the September 16th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, have now traced the origins of this severe immune response -- called a cytokine storm -- to its source.

    Cytokines are the chemical signals that drive inflammation, and cytokine storms are thought to be the cause of many of the deaths attributed to the 1918 worldwide influenza pandemic and to the more recent outbreaks of swine and bird flu infection. The new study provides encouraging news by offering the foundations for a completely new kind of flu therapy.

    "We are showing for the first time that you can actually separate the deleterious events from those needed to control the virus," said Hugh Rosen, senior author of this study, from The Scripps Research Institute.

    "It had been thought for a long time that all injury from influenza was due to the virus itself, consequently, and rationally, the focus was on developing antiviral drugs," said study co-author Michael Oldstone, also of Scripps.

    The new results suggest that drugs aimed at the dangerous immune response may offer a life-saving new line of defense, by protecting infected hosts from themselves. Another bonus is that such an approach doesn't put the same pressure on viruses to adapt and develop drug resistance.

    The cytokines associated with flu infection were thought to come from virus-infected cells found primarily in the lungs and nasal passages. The authors find that the cytokines are instead released from the endothelial cells that line blood vessels. A protein found on the surface of endothelial cells, called Sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor (S1P1), is essential for flu-associated cytokine storms.

    In mice treated with a molecule that targets S1P1, cytokine production and the early signs of inflammation are suppressed. As a result, the animals are much more likely to survive infection with H1N1 swine flu virus. Notably, several companies are already testing S1P1-targeted drugs in clinical trials, the researchers say.

    "Now that we know where cytokines come from and have isolated the specific receptor-based mechanism, it is likely that a single oral dose of a compound can be developed that will provide protection from cytokine storm early in infection," Rosen says.

    That's not to say that antiviral drugs will be a thing of the past. Rosen and Oldstone suggest that the most promising therapies of the future would include a combination of drugs designed to protect against cytokine storms and tackle viruses head-on.

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    Story Source:

    The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Cell Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

    Journal Reference:

    1. John R. Teijaro, Kevin B. Walsh, Stuart Cahalan, Daniel M. Fremgen, Edward Roberts, Fiona Scott, Esther Martinborough, Robert Peach, Michael B.A. Oldstone, Hugh Rosen. Endothelial Cells Are Central Orchestrators of Cytokine Amplification during Influenza Virus Infection. Cell, 2011; 146 (6): 980-991 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.08.015

    Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

    Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

    Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/6PhKtKZX7Xg/110915134410.htm

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    Australian senator under fire over rape allegation (AP)

    CANBERRA, Australia ? An Australian senator came under fire Wednesday for using his special immunity from prosecution to name a Roman Catholic priest accused of raping a fellow priest more than 40 years ago.

    Nick Xenophon, an independent senator, had presented the church with an ultimatum: remove the priest from his duties or his name would be made public within 24 hours.

    On Tuesday night, Xenophon made good on his threat and told the Senate the priest's identity and said he was being investigated by the church over an alleged rape in the 1960s.

    Xenophon cannot be sued for anything he says in the Senate and the Australian media cannot be held liable for reporting any false accusation that he might make.

    Lawmakers on Wednesday attacked Xenophon's action as a misuse of his parliamentary privilege.

    The priest denied the allegation in a news conference and said there was no suggestion of pedophilia. The church routinely removes clerics accused of child abuse from their duties for the safety of other children.

    His alleged victim went to the Catholic church in 2007 with his allegation against the priest. But he did not want the police involved and told Xenophon he did not want the priest named in the Senate.

    Xenophon said he decided to identify the priest because the church had failed to deal with the allegation promptly and remove the suspect from his parish duties.

    "This was a secret that, in good conscience, I did not feel I could ? or should ? keep," Xenophon told the Senate.

    Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson rejected Xenophon's claim of church mishandling, saying the alleged victim had only agreed in February to a formal church investigation and had not yet provided a requested list of witnesses who could help in the probe.

    "I am deeply distressed that Sen. Xenophon has named the priest in Parliament," Wilson said in a statement.

    "The damage to the priest's reputation is obvious and severe," he added. "What has happened is unfair and unjust."

    Wilson said he could not remove the priest from his duties under the circumstances.

    Senior government minister Anthony Albanese said Xenophon should have taken his allegations to the police rather than the Senate.

    "I think it's very important that the Parliament not become a forum for subverting proper processes," he told Sky News television.

    Senior opposition Sen. Barnaby Joyce told reporters, "You've got to be very, very cautious about being judge, jury and executioner in the chamber."

    The alleged victim said late Wednesday that he been contacted by police and is now considering filing a criminal complaint.

    Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110914/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_accused_priest

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    Finnish FM: No solution on Greek collateral

    (AP) ? Finland's finance minister said she doesn't see Friday's meeting of eurozone finance ministers finding a solution to the dispute over her country's demand for collateral for loans to Greece ? a delay that is set to add to concerns over the currency union's unity.

    Finland's demand for collateral to back its contribution to a second, euro109 billion rescue package for debt-ridden Greece has harrowed negotiations over the implementation of that deal since it was agreed at a summit on July 21. The small Nordic country's demand has triggered similar requests from several other states, including Austria and the Netherlands.

    If the requests were fulfilled, providing the collateral could shave off hundreds of millions of euros from the overall bailout sum.

    "Unfortunately I don't see that we can find a solution tonight," Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen said as she arrived in for a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Wroclaw, Poland.

    The dispute has unsettled markets, as it is yet another sign of divisions between the 17 countries that use the euro over whether they can actually save Greece.

    The rescue faces several other challenges. Greece's international debt inspectors interrupted their most recent review mission two weeks ago after they discovered that Athens was set to miss its budget targets. Since then, Greece has announced a special property tax, which the government says should cover the revenue shortfall.

    Meeting strict budget, privatization and reform targets set out in Greece's deal for a first euro110 billion rescue package is a prerequisite for receiving the next aid installment, which is due by the end of the month. Without the euro8 billion tranche from the other eurozone nations and the International Monetary Fund, the country would run out of money by mid-October, forcing it to stop paying salaries and eventually default on its massive debts.

    However, Austria's Finance Minister Maria Fekter, traditionally a hard-liner when it comes to sticking to the bailout conditions, said she was "very optimistic that the next tranche can be paid out to Greece."

    Friday meeting comes after several turbulent weeks on global financial markets, triggered by fears over a potential Greek default, its repercussions for European banks, and a slowdown of the world economy. U.S. Treasury chief Timothy Geithner, who has been pushing Europe to finally sort out the debt crisis which has dragged on for close to two years, also arrived in Wroclaw and was to join the ministers after first meeting with his Polish counterpart.

    Associated Press

    Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-09-16-EU-Europe-Financial-Crisis/id-d31d5cf47b5f4475b70d6c6976b47bf2

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