- Summer is always a tough time for those who depend on
water in the state of Texas – i.e. everyone. Rain is in short supply and land
becomes even drier and more barren than normal. Having a water main break could
be construed as an exacerbation of the problem and residents of Grand Prairie
are facing that very issue after a water main break Monday night. City officials have put the
public on notice that the municipality could run out of water as crews work
around the clock to repair the line. Residents were instructed to use water
only for essential personal hygiene purposes, although there has been no talk
of rationing shower privileges just yet. Residents and businesses were both
instructed to turn off outdoor irrigation systems and not to use water outdoors,
with a blanket recommendation to use bottled drinking water in effect for
everyone within city limits. The focal point for city officials in the fight to
keep their city hydrated is overnight, when residents’ automatic sprinklers
run. Even when repairs are completed, officials expect that it will take
several days for the system to recover fully. Public Works director Ron
McCuller explained one of two main water supply lines running from Dallas into
Grand Prairie ruptured near the Carrier Parkway and Camp Wisdom Road area. The
water main is the largest in the city and that’s generally OK, as 60-inch
concrete lines do not usually rupture. “There was a piece of this pipeline that
for whatever reason the concrete slipped off outside of it and exposed it to
the soil and that ate a hole in the pipe,” McCuller said. The damaged line
supplies 28 million of the 40 million gallons of water the city uses on an
average day. That number dipped to 17 million the first day post-rupture………
- Hey everyone, come see how good I write! The man, the
myth, the fake television news legend himself is poised for a return to the big
screen in a matter of months, but Ron Burgundy isn’t waiting for the release of
“Anchorman 2” to reintroduce himself to the masses. In the first, cult classic “Anchorman,”
Burgundy boasted, "I own many
leather-bound books." Before the sequel drops, Burgundy will release a
book of his own, titled “Let Me Off at the Top!” Burgundy, the alter ego of
Will Ferrell, will release the autobiography with the help of Random House's
Crown Archetype imprint. The book is due Nov. 19 and oddly enough, it does not
feature a writing credit from either Adam McKay or Will Ferrell, who co-wrote
both the original 2004 comedy and its upcoming sequel, “Anchorman: The Legend Continues.” Maybe that’s because Burgundy
really does exist and maybe it’s because someone else wrote it and slid it
under the Ron Burgundy heading, but either way, the book will chronicle
Burgundy's love life and career with the Channel 4 News Team, "offer(ing)
a rare glimpse behind the camera into the real life of a man many consider to
be the greatest living news anchor,” according to a news release. "I don't
know if it's the greatest autobiography ever written," Burgundy said in a
statement, also noting that he "cried like a goddamn baby" the first
time he read the book. The Nov. 19 release will give fans of the movie one
month to read the book before “Anchorman:
The Legend Continues” hits theaters on Dec. 20, complete with e cameos
by Drake and Kanye West, along with the cast from the original movie and
Kristen Wiig, who will play the love interest for Steve Carrell’s Brick Tamland
character……..
- Finally, someone has figured out a way to slow light’s über-quick
ass down. Light typically races along at about 186,282 miles per second. Thanks to science, its
roll can now be slowed. This can be accomplished by using embedded dye
molecules in a liquid crystal matrix and this finding could eventually lead to
new technologies in remote sensing and measurement science. While scientists have
long known that a wave packet of light becomes more sluggish when it travels
through matter, the magnitude of this particular slowdown in common materials
such as glass or water is less than a factor of two. For this study,
researchers tried a new approach to manipulating light involves taking
advantage of the fact that when light travels as a pulse. It amounts to a
collection of waves, each having a slightly different frequency. For it to
work, all waves in the pulse must travel together, which means that scientists
can design materials to be like obstacles courses that "trip up" some
of the waves more than others. For the pulse to exit the material together, it
must wait until it can reconstitute itself. The researchers used a liquid
crystal similar to the materials used in LCD television and computer displays because
it did not require external voltages or magnetic fields and works at room
temperature. They added a chemical component that twisted the liquid crystal
molecules into a helical shape and then added dye molecules that rested in the
helical structures. Because the dye molecules change their shape when
irradiated with light, they altered the optical properties of the material.
Slowing down light this much could eventually allow scientists to store the
pulses for optical communication and the implications from there are endless……
- Finding authentic Italian cuisine submerged beneath 160
feet of ocean water can be difficult. It became a little easier after divers
found a
well-preserved ancient Roman shipwreck whose cargo of food might still be
intact. The ship is believed to be about 2,000 years old and is currently
lodged in the mud off the coast of Varazze, Italy. Its mud blanket kept it
hidden for centuries while also preserving the ship and its cargo, held in clay
jars known as amphorae. "There are some broken jars around the wreck, but
we believe that most of the amphorae inside the ship are still sealed and
food-filled," said Lt. Col. Francesco Schilardi, commander of the police
diving team that found the shipwreck. Local fishermen helped by alerting police
that there might be a wreck in the area because pieces of pottery kept turning
up in their nets. Police divers then used a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to
locate the shipwreck about 160 feet underwater. "This is an exceptional
find," Schilardi added. "Now, our goal is to preserve the ship and
keep thieves out. We are executing surveys and excavations to study the
contents of the boat, which is perfectly intact." Marine archaeologists
have achieved more success of late thanks to sophisticated technologies like
ROVs, sonar mapping equipment and genetic analysis and well-preserved artifacts
from shipwrecks have been the byproduct. What makes the Varazze wreck so unique
is that its clay amphorae still have intact caps of pine and pitch (a kind of
tar), giving archaeologists hope that the contents are still preserved. The
area off Varazze was part of an ancient trading route along the Italian
peninsula, France and Spain and officials have sealed off the area to prevent
looting………
- Elite athletes are rarely satisfied with being great at
their sport or their position in their sport. They feel like they should be
able to play another spot on the field, dominate another sport or conquer
another industry. Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is no different. Watt,
known for his military salute celebration after sacks, would like to unleash
the gesture after catching touchdown passes as well. "Whatever I can do to help the team win, I will do," Watt
said of his desire to play receiver. "I've been lobbying since Day 1. It
hasn't worked yet, so I don't think it's going to work anytime soon but it's
his team.” Coach Gary Kubiak doesn’t seem inclined to allow a player who
registered a league-best 20.5 sacks last season to go both ways, but Watt isn’t
giving up hope. He went to Central Michigan to play tight end before being
switched to defense after transferring to Wisconsin and can often be seen
catching balls from the Jugs machine with the other receivers in practice. "It's
just about being an athlete. I have fun, catching balls is fun, just doing
whatever you can to be an athlete, working on hand-eye coordination, and the
little things. It never hurts to be able to catch a football," he added.
Watt received a taste of offense at the Pro Bowl last season when he lined up
for a play at wide receiver for a play. Kubiak was not impressed. "No, I
didn't like that personally. When I saw he was going to line up out there, that
scared me a little bit," the coach said. "We'll let him keep getting
after the quarterback and maybe we'll find him a play or two of offense down
the road." He did admit that the Texans have discussed a goal-line package
that would include Watt. "No, we've talked about it actually. We talked
about a Wisconsin package with him and [tight end] Garrett [Graham] and OD
[tight end Owen Daniels] in the game on the goal line. I don't know what part
of the Wisconsin package he would play, but we'll see," Kubiak said………
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