A day before the voting ended yesterday night, the Philippine government mounted a “last ditch” effort through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) by ordering all local government officials from governors down to barangay captains to urge Filipinos around the country to cast their vote for the underground river.

Agencies under the DILG, including the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, were also ordered to urge their members and linked groups to vote for the underground river.

The other six New 7 Wonders of Nature, based on provisional results, were South America’s Amazon River, Vietnman’s Halong Bay, Argentina’s Iguazu Fallas, South Korea’s Jeju Island, Indonesia’s Komodo Island and South Africa’s Table Mountain.

The New7Wondres Foundation, meanwhile, clarified that “it is possible that there will be changes between the above provisional winners and the eventual finally confirmed winners.”

It said that the list released early today was “in alphabetical order” and not in any position of ranking.

The foundation said that the voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently verified. The official New 7 Wonders of Nature will be announced early 2012, it added.

“The results will now be checked, validated and independently verified. Once the voting validation process is completed, in early 2012, New7Wonders will then work with the confirmed winners to organise the Official Inauguration events,” Bernard Weber, the foundation’s founder and president, said as he announced the provisional winners.

Weber announced that “one or more” may be erased from the list of the provisional winners.

“It may happen that one or more of the provisional winners announced today will not be confirmed during the validation process, New7Wonders will issue a media update should this happen,” he said.

Weber also commended the other participants and the people who joined the voting for the search for the new seven wonders of the world.

“I would like to thank the many champions, citizens, voluntary organisations, public bodies and governments that have helped promote the New7Wonders of Nature campaign over the past four years, starting with over 440 locations from over 220 countries and all the way to the 28 Finalist candidates from whom the New7Wonders of Nature have been chosen,” he said.

The foundation said that more than a million cast their vote since the start of the search. From 440 contenders, the list was trimmed to 220 and then to a shortlist of 77.

From 77, the number of contenders was trimmed further down to 28 and finally the seven provisional winners.

The votes were cast through text, internet and by telephone. — Angelo L. Gutierrez – The Pinoy

At the port in Natchez, Miss., barge traffic is at a standstill, both to keep downstream levees from being overwhelmed and from fears that the barges would be unable to get around safely in the elevated water levels. Port officials had no clear idea when the river traffic would resume. That the river is closed at all is indicative of the scope of the disaster, as port officials estimate that lost revenues could exceed hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Mississippi River, swollen beyond normal capacity by frequent rainstorms and higher than usual snowmelt, has seeped into surrounding land in several states along the long route to the Gulf of Mexico. Residents of Louisiana were on high alert, expecting displacement similar to those suffered in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, among other states in which a total of nearly 3 million acres of farmland has flooded. The water level at Natchez was already three feet higher than the record flooding of 1937, and the crest wasn’t expected until the weekend. An intense watch on levees continued, staffed by engineers and, in some places, inmates.

In Louisiana, engineers have released water from the Morganza Spillway, opening it for the first time since 1973 and letting the floodwater flow through the bayou and away from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where river levels have crested but show no signs of lowering any time soon.

Similar flooding has inundated Vicksburg, Miss., threatening thousands of Civil War-era graves, and Memphis, Tenn. Thousands of people have fled their homes, taking refuge with family and friends or in temporary shelters.

By: socialstudiesforkids.com

78% of Driving Crashes, Near Crashes and Incidents Due to Inattention; Cell Phones Are #1 Distraction

Distraction is a leading cause of crashes for teens. Driver distraction comes in many forms. What they all have in common is that the driver takes his or her eyes off the road ahead. Researchers have pin-pointed the most common causes of distraction, making it easier for parents to set rules that address each one. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) video taped over 2 million miles of driving using in-vehicle video equipment, following 100 drivers for a period of one year.

They classified all forms of driver distraction into different categories — cell phone related, passenger related, personal hygiene and so forth.

Using a cell phone was by far the greatest example of secondary task distraction in this study. Dialing the phone and talking/listening were the greatest contributors to near crashes and incidents. Other activities – reaching for the phone, speed dialing – contributed less frequently, but still represent a risky behavior. [Ed. ~ Other studies are beginning to show that text messaging while driving is far more common among teen drivers than you might believe. This clearly draws a lot more attention from the driving task to the dialing task -- leading to crashes.]

The cellular industry would lose millions of dollars – perhaps billions –if cell phones were banned nationwide in a moving vehicle. Such a ban, however, is not likely to be implemented because states and their citizens, for the most part, do not want to put such laws into effect. However as of January, 2007 several states (CO, DE, IL, ME, MD, MN, NC, RI, TN, TX and WV) have laws in place that prohibit young drivers from using cell phones when driving. Further, CA (effective 1/1/2008), CN, NJ, NY, DC and certain localities in IL, MA, MI, NM, OH and PA prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones.

It takes only about three seconds of inattention to crash. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and NHTSA report that using a cell phone in the car is the number one cause of distraction leading to crashes, near crashes and adverse incidents.

By: Staff Safe Teen Driving Club – Education.com

Cars, ships and buildings were swept away by a wall of water after the 8.9-magnitude tremor, which struck about 400km (250 miles) north-east of Tokyo.

A state of emergency has been declared at a nuclear power plant, where pressure has exceeded normal levels.

Officials say 350 people are dead and about 500 missing, but it is feared the final death toll will be much higher.

In one ward alone in Sendai, a port city in Miyagi prefecture, 200 to 300 bodies were found.

In the centre of Tokyo many people are spending the night in their offices. But thousands, perhaps millions, chose to walk home. Train services were suspended.

Even after the most violent earthquake anyone could remember the crowds were orderly and calm. The devastation is further to the north, along the Pacific coast.

There a tsunami triggered by the quake reached 10km (six miles) inland in places carrying houses, buildings, boats and cars with it. In the city of Sendai the police found up to 300 bodies in a single ward. Outside the city in a built-up area a fire blazed across several kilometres.

Japan’s ground self-defence forces have been deployed, and the government has asked the US military based in the country for help. The scale of destruction from the biggest quake ever recorded in Japan will become clear only at first light.

The quake was the fifth-largest in the world since 1900 and nearly 8,000 times stronger than the one which devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month, said scientists.

Thousands of people living near the Fukushima nuclear power plant have been ordered to evacuate.

Japanese nuclear officials said pressure inside a boiling water reactor at the plant was running much higher than normal after the cooling system failed.

Officials said they might need to deliberately release some radioactive steam to relieve pressure, but that there would be no health risk.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had earlier said the US Air Force had flown emergency coolant to the site.

But US officials later said no coolant had been handed over because the Japanese had decided to handle the situation themselves.

The UN’s nuclear agency said four nuclear power plants had shut down safely.

Measured at 8.9 by the US Geological Survey, it struck at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) at a depth of about 24km.
Continue reading the main story

The tsunami rolled across the Pacific at 800km/h (500mph) – as fast as a jetliner – before hitting Hawaii and the US West Coast, but there were no reports of major damage from those regions.

Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate coastal areas in the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

The biggest waves of more than 6-7ft (about 2m) were recorded near California’s Crescent City, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

A tsunami warning extended across the Pacific to North and South America, where many other coastal regions were evacuated, but the alert was later lifted in most parts, including the Philippines, Australia and China.

Strong waves hit Japan’s Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, damaging dozens of coastal communities.

A 10m wave struck Sendai, deluging farmland and sweeping cars across the airport’s runway. Fires broke out in the centre of the city.
Map

Japan’s NHK television showed a massive surge of debris-filled water reaching far inland, consuming houses, cars and ships.

Motorists could be seen trying to speed away from the wall of water.

In other developments:

* Four trains are missing along the coast, says Japan Railways; and a ship carrying 100 people was swept away
* Fire has engulfed swathes of the coast in Miyagi prefecture’s Kesennuma city, one-third of which is reportedly under water
* A major explosion hit a petrochemical plant in Sendai; further south a huge blaze swept an oil refinery in Ichihara city, Chiba prefecture
* Some 1,800 homes are reported to have been destroyed in the city of Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture
* A dam burst in north-eastern Fukushima prefecture, sweeping away homes, Kyodo news agency reports
* At least 20 people were injured in Tokyo when the roof of a hall collapsed on to a graduation ceremony

In a televised address, Prime Minister Naoto Kan extended his sympathy to the victims of the disaster.

As aftershocks rattled the country, residents and workers in Tokyo rushed outside to gather in parks and open spaces.

Many people in the Japanese capital said they had never felt such a powerful earthquake.

In central Tokyo, a number of office workers are spending the night in their offices because the lifts have stopped working.

“This is the kind of earthquake that hits once every 100 years,” said restaurant worker Akira Tanaka.

Train services were suspended, stranding millions of commuters in the Japanese capital.

About four million homes in and around Tokyo suffered power cuts.

By: BBC News

Already on the radar for many Olympics-watchers is the Aug. 5 finals of the men’s 100-meter dash, expected to be a title defense by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, who won both the 100m and the 200m in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The race will take place at Olympic Stadium, in London. The stadium has about 80,000 seats, and all eyes are expected to be on Bolt in his dash into history once again.

Preliminaries matchups in women’s soccer actually start two days before the Opening Ceremonies, on July 25. The last event will be the gold medal game in Basketball. Women’s boxing and tennis mixed doubles will premiere as Olympic events in 2012.

The competition categories are these:

* Archery
* Athletics
* Badminton
* Basketball
* Beach Volleyball
* Boxing
* Canoeing
* Cycling
* Diving
* Equestrian
* Fencing
* Football (Soccer)
* Gymnastics
* Handball
* Hockey (Outdoor)
* Judo
* Modern Pentathlon
* Rowing
* Sailing
* Shooting
* Swimming
* Synchronised Swimming
* Table Tennis
* Taekwondo
* Tennis
* Triathlon
* Volleyball
* Water Polo
* Weightlifting
* Wrestling (Freestyle)
* Wrestling (Greco-Roman)

The Olympic Torch Relay will begin a few weeks before the Opening Ceremonies take place, with the traditional torch lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece. The Olympic Flame will begin its U.K. journey on May 18. About 8,000 torchbearers will carry the Flame to most of the country on the journey that ends in London.

By: socialstudiesforkids.com

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has given a group of civilian scholars and judges just 10 days to come up with concrete changes to the country’s constitution that would put in place a more representative government than the one that had supported former President Hosni Mubarak for 30 years. Tareq al-Bishri, a former head of the country’s administrative court, is leading the group. Among the extraordinarily wide powers that this group now wields are the ability to “amend all articles as it sees fit to guarantee democracy and the integrity of presidential and parliamentary elections,” among them the removal of the unlimited term of office for president and the direct path of law cases to military tribunals.

The military rulers outlined a six-month blueprint that immediately followed the constitutional reforms with a nationwide referendum and then ended with the already scheduled elections in September. Of significant interest on Tuesday was the announcement by the Muslim Brotherhood, long an opposition operation with some following but little power, that it would form a political party in preparation for the elections but would not submit a candidate for president. A lawmaker representing the group is on the council evaluating constitutional amendments.

Of growing concern to the ruling council is the continued scale of nationwide protests. Thousands of people still refuse to return to work, demonstrating in the streets and squares, and outside businesses in cities around the country. In the face of such protests, the central bank and stock exchange showed no signs of opening, as did many state-owned businesses, amoung them the country’s largest exporter of clothes, Arafa Holding. This would have been grim news, especially given a recent report saying that Egypt had lost $300 million a day since the protests began in earnest on January 25.

Egyptians’ success in toppling their government has emboldened protesters in other nearby countries, including Bahrain, Iran, and Yemen. Security forces in Iran and Yemen have actively engaged with protesters, resulting in violent clashes that have left some people dead. The largest of the protests, in Bahrain’s capital, numbered thousands of people and was more peaceful.

By: socialstudiesforkids.com