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Tuesday 30 October 2012

Astonishing images of the moment apocalyptic 'derecho' superstorm battered New York killing two


One man was killed in Brooklyn, New York, and a woman died in Genesee, Pennsylvania

  • Richard Schwartz, 61, an assistant New York State attorney general, was killed after being hit by scaffolding and bricks falling from a church steeple that was struck by lightning
  • 32 million people in path of severe storm and New York City has 'unusually high risk' of tornado
  • State of emergency issued after tornado touched down in Elmira, NY at 4.15pm with fires, building damage and motorists trapped in cars
  • Flights delayed up to 2 hours at JFK, La Guardia and Newark airports
  • Campsites evacuated in Allegany and Niagara regions


Two people were killed and more than 100,000 homes and businesses in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania were without electricity Friday morning after ferocious thunderstorms swept through the region.
A state of emergency and curfew were in effect in Elmira, New York, this morning after a suspected tornado toppled power lines and trees and hospitals were placed on disaster alert.
Only emergency vehicles allowed on the streets until 8 am while the damage was cleared, Chemung County Office of Fire and Emergency Management spokeswoman Karen Miner said.
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Frightening: Two people were killed after the storm ravaged parts of the East Coast, including New York City
Ferocious: The moment the storm moved across New York City, grounding hundreds of flights and leaving tens of thousands of residents without power
Ferocious: The moment the storm moved across New York City, grounding hundreds of flights and leaving tens of thousands of residents without power
Unpredictable: Dark clouds loom over New York City as thunderstorms and torrential rain batter the U.S.'s East Coast
Skyline: The storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across New York City on Thursday
Skyline: The storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across New York City on Thursday
Bolt: Lightning strikes over Manhattan yesterday evening, in the wake of a huge thunderstorm which passed through the Tri-State area
Gloomy: This dramatic image taken by photographer Ryan Brenizer shows the storm's path across Manhattan
Gloomy: This dramatic image taken by photographer Ryan Brenizer shows the storm's path across Manhattan
The severe weather, which has been described as the summer's second 'derecho', claimed the lives of two people. A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.
A prosecutor with the state attorney general’s office was killed after he was hit by scaffolding and bricks that fell from a church steeple that was struck by lightning in Brooklyn, New York, according to the New York Post
Richard Schwartz, 61, was taken to Long Island College Hospital in Brookyn where he was pronounced dead.
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a statement about the tragic death. 'I send my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Assistant Attorney General Richard Schwartz who was tragically killed last night as a result of the storm,' Schneiderman said in a statement. 
 


    'For over 25 years, Richard served the people of New York State with integrity as an expert antitrust lawyer in the Office of the Attorney General's economic justice division. New York is a better place because of Richard's commitment to fairness and legal excellence. Richard's loved ones are in our thoughts and prayers as we mourn the untimely loss of one of our own.'
    Governor Andrew Cuomo also paid tribute to Schwartz, saying: 'His commitment to placing the needs of New Yorkers above all else will be remembered and cherished. His work ethic and his passion were an inspiration to all who had the privilege of knowing him. 
    'Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and colleagues with whom he worked during his many years in State service.'
    A woman who was camping in Genesee, Pennsylvania, near the New York State line, was also killed when she took refuge from the storm in her car and a tree then fell on it, John Hetrick, director of emergency services for Potter County, said.
    Path of destruction: Gary Dunning surveys the damage to his business after a tornado struck in Elmira, New York on Thursday
    Elements: Downed power lines and trees are pictured in Elmira, New York State after a tornado hit at 4.15pm local time
    Elements: Downed power lines and trees are pictured in Elmira, New York State after a tornado hit at 4.15pm local time
    Uprooted: An enormous tree is torn up by the force of a tornado which touched down in Elmira as the east coast was battered by severe weather
    Aftermath: A resident cleans up the morning after the town of Elmira was hit by a tornado on July 27, 2012
    Aftermath: A resident cleans up the morning after the town of Elmira was hit by a tornado on July 27, 2012
    Damage: A bent stop sign is pictured the morning after the town was hit by a tornado in Elmira, New York July 27, 2012
    Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared an emergency for Chemung County after a tornado touched down in the city of Elmira, in north-west New York State, at 4.15pm to allow the state to mobilize state resources to assist local governments.
    'This state of emergency declaration will help the state get critical resources to communities that were hit the hardest,' Cuomo said.

    WHAT IS A 'DERECHO'?

    A derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.
    It can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, while the damage typically is directed in one direction.
    As a result, the term 'straight-line wind damage' issometimes used to describe the phenomenon.
    To be classified as a derecho, the line of storms must travel at least 240 miles and include wind gusts of at least 58 mph.
    In one four-block neighborhood in Elmira, most homes had trees toppled upon them, street signs were bent in half and tree trunks had debris wrapped around them. Several cars were crushed by downed trees, while one two-story brick building had most of the second story torn off in the storm.
    On Friday morning, most power remained out for the city's 29,000 residents.
    As the storms sent black, menacing clouds rolling across Midwest and Northeast, hail ranging from the size of a dime to a quarter fell in some areas of Pennsylvania, AccuWeather.com said.
    Meteorologists said 70-mile-per-hour (113-kph) winds were reported in parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
    Hundreds of flights were cancelled and at least 300,000 homes suffered power cuts in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut after warnings of tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, hail and hurricane-strength winds along the East Coast.  
    More than 900 flights in the U.S. were grounded with LaGuardia Airport in New York the worst affected with 162 planes unable to take off.
    Around 32 million people were directly in the path of the storm yesterday including those in and around New York City, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
    Skies darkened over Manhattan around 6pm with heavy downpours on the island and in the Bronx first, then rolling across Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn.
    Crushed: A crushed automobile is seen the morning after the town was hit by a tornado in Elmira, New York July 27, 2012
    Violent: Downed trees cover a car and reach across the street the morning after the town was hit by a tornado in Elmira, New York July 27, 2012
    Fatal: A prosecutor with the state attorney general¿s office was killed after he was hit by scaffolding and bricks that fell from a church steeple that was struck by lightning in Brooklyn, New York
    Lightning strikes the antenna on the top of the Empire State Building yesterday
    Dark and stormy: Clouds rumble over New York as severe weather broke along the East Coast yesterday
    Intense: The sky darkened and thunder rumbled Thursday evening as a severe thunderstorm blew through New York City
    City slickers: Pedestrians rush through a torrential downpour in Times Square, Manhattan
    Running in the rain: A young woman dashes through the torrential downpour in Manhattan's theater district in Times Square
    Blowing a gale: Tourists laugh as high winds catch their umbrellas in the center of Times Square
    Can't rain on my parade! Are Kjeldsberg-Skauby, 12, of Norway, dances in a torrential downpour
    Winds of up to 60mph were being reported on the Hudson's Tappan Zee Bridge but the worst was expected to be over by 10pm.
    Westchester County and parts of Connecticut were hardest hit with downed trees and damaged power lines. 
    Forecasters upgraded the tri-state area to 'moderate risk' today, with New York City having 'unusually high chance' of tornadoes. 
    The outbreak threatened to be as bad as the derecho which left millions without powers for days in Washington, D.C. last month.
    Authorities evacuated campsites across New York State. The Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation encouraged those in trailers, recreational vehicles and cabins to leave ten sites in the Allegany and Niagara regions of western New York and the Taconic and Palisades regions to the east.
    Conservation officials were also advising campers in the Catskills and southern Adirondacks to seek shelter.
    Threatening: Rolling storm clouds and torrential rain over Brooklyn last night
    Ominous skies: Derecho looms over Long Island City as the East Coast faced severe weather
    Batten down the hatches: The sky darkens over Arnot Mall in Big Flats, New York
    Here it comes! The storm system can be seen on the weather map edging its way towards New York City and surrounding area
    Utilities report about 10,000 customers with power outages in Steuben and Allegany counties. 
    The severe weather pattern made its way across the Midwest with forecasters predicting adverse conditions in Columbus, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
    Towns across eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania and upstate New York also reported downed trees, according to the Storm Prediction Center. 
    Tornado warnings were in effect for most of New York State, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, including areas surrounding New York City. 
    JFK International Airport was already redirecting flights to nearby Newark. 
    Flights were currently delayed up to 90 minutes at JFK with Newark also reporting two-hour delays.
    New York’s LaGuardia Airport is experiencing delays of 90 minutes. Travellers in Philadelphia were being delayed one hour
    Winds of 60 miles an hour, large hail, isolated tornadoes and torrential rain was expected in the next few hours in the mid-Hudson Valley region.
    Dark skies: The storm builds over New York City as residents headed for shelter
    Brewing: New York City was braced this evening for the unusually high threat of a tornado
    Derecho: Severe thunderstorms are predicted for Chicago and Philadelphia, with tornado watches along the Eastern Seaboard
    Battered: Torrential rain hits Broome and Tioga counties in New York

    EYE OF THE STORM: WHO WILL BE AFFECTED BY TONIGHT'S TEMPEST?

    It is estimated that 63million people from Iowa to New England will be hit by the storm.
    Thunderstorm warnings were issued in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. The storm will also effect Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Connecticut and Vermont.
    There were tornado warnings for Ithica, New York and severe thunderstorm warnings for New York City.
    The storm system has put a major wrench in travel plans, with up to two hour delays reported at New York airports - JFK, La Guardia and Newark.
    Across New England and the Midwest, up to five inches of rain was expected.
    New York City was hit by a freak storm two weeks ago which brought flash floods and booming thunderstorms. 
    Subway stations were shut down as water submerged tracks leaving many commuters  stranded.
    Severe thunderstorms threatened Ohio and the lower northeast while areas from the upper Great Lakes and the Mid-Mississippi Valley northeastward to southern New England were at risk for severe weather development.
    Elsewhere, hot and humid conditions coupled with continued instability led to chances of showers and thunderstorms along the eastern and central Gulf Coast. 
    Monsoonal moisture and daytime heating will kick up areas of showers and thunderstorms in the Central and Southern Rockies through the afternoon and evening. 
    Temperatures in the Lower 48 states yesterday ranged from a morning low of 35 degrees at Stanley, Idaho to a high of 107 degrees at Olney-Noble, Illinois.
    While the Eastern Seaboard and much of the Midwest is being drenched, the rest of the country is suffering a debilitating drought. Many areas of middle Georgia are suffering exceptional drought conditions.

    Monday 22 October 2012

    NBA 2K13: Video plays to put Justin Bieber selection against U.S.





    NBA 2K13: Video plays to put Justin Bieber selection against U.S.

      If the singer Justin Bieber is loved or hated in the world, let's not get into that merit, but we can say that his talent for basketball is not the best.

    Let me explain: The producer of 2K, with the nickname Ronnie on Twitter, made ​​a little joke with the singer and put him on a team, TeamBieber against the U.S. team in the new NBA 2K13 basketball game. With the song "Baby" at the bottom, rolled a partidinha naughty and pop music star staged a failed game - on his part. After he gets smart and starts making baskets.


    Have you thought about a boy's team with DLC? Only in this way to make the fans "beliebers" playing a gamezinho with her boyfriend.

    Sunday 14 October 2012

    Survey 1 Comic Strip Essays: Bill Bedard on “Little Nemo in Slumberland”


    Survey 1 Comic Strip Essays: Bill Bedard on “Little Nemo in Slumberland”

    Note: This is the third in a series of essays written by the current Class of 2012 for Survey of the Drawn Story I, CCS’s comics history class. They are posted here in approximate chronological order of when their chosen subjects—comic strips—were either first published, or in their heyday.
    These were class assignments, and should be enjoyed in that context; these are not necessarily indicative of the work the individual artists/writers would do in paid professional venues. This is work assigned in class with a tight deadline, completed while juggling many other class assignments. That said, it is all of high caliber, or we would not be sharing it with you here. Enjoy!
    All illustrations and captions in this particular post were incorporated into the original essay by its author, Bill Bedard. Bill also prepared them all for this online posting; thanks, Bill! Unless otherwise noted, any images accompanied by captions or comments in brackets [like this] were added by the Survey I instructor, Stephen Bissette, to enhance this public post, as were the author info and “further reading” notes after the essay and author’s footnotes.
    ________________________________________________
    Little Nemo in Slumberland
    by Bill Bedard
    Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay is a masterful work. Published Sundays off and on from 1905-27, the strip follows the adventures of a tousle-haired boy in his dreams. The boy, Nemo, first spends his time in dreams attempting to reach Slumberland to be the playmate of the Princess, daughter of King Morpheus of Slumberland. In later strips, having achieved his goal and reached the princess, the strip follows the antics of Nemo and friends through the madcap and surreal landscapes of Slumberland. McCay’s work was ground breaking at the time, and nearly a century later still considered to be a perfect example of what potential for excellence the comics medium holds.
    While Little Nemo has ignited the imagination of many artists to chronicle their own dreamlands, some successful contemporary artists look back on Nemo with a critical eye, taking umbrage with McCay’s lines or the attention lavished upon the surreal landscapes at the expense of the characters. These criticisms are to a degree very valid, but must be considered not only in the framework of a single Sunday page, but as an ongoing part of thousands of single stories that work together to tell a narrative. In this way, a character like Nemo, who may appear flat may in fact be a multifaceted hero whose character and personality is simply divulged over a course of months and years.
    Nemo’s bed goes for a walk; 1905, The New York Herald.
    _____
    Finding Fault with Nemo
    One of the most common criticisms that Little Nemo receives is that Slumberland, along with all the other fantastical dream lands that are visited in Nemo, including the North Pole and Mars, are treated with more deference than the human/dream beings are afforded. Bill Waterson of Calvin and Hobbesfame lamented in an article:
    “To be perfectly honest, however I admire Little Nemo more than I actually like it. McCay was clearly more interested in his stage than in his actors, and a stage, no matter how grand, can’t carry a play. The inventive visual effects notwithstanding, I can’t read the strip without thinking how much more enchanting Slumberland would be if the characters, rather than the backdrops and costumes, advanced the story.”
    Watterson called the characters “cardboard dressup dolls” and cited the word balloons done by McCay as evidence that story was a pale second in comparison with the design of the world itself. He pointed out that the balloons tend to seem like a squished in afterthought- not part of the page design until the eleventh hour. Watterson also noted that dialogue generally fails to use characters’ voice as a way to describe them. He excluded Flip Flop the clown from this generality, but Nemo and the rest had nothing but “flat, exclamatory dialogue or overuse of exposition.”
    In this strip from the NY Herald, Thanksgiving Day 1905, Nemo doesn’t say anything in word balloons that doesn’t rehash the captions or end up as a call for his mother or father. This doesn’t stop the strip from being an ingenius reversal of who normally gobbles whom on Turkey Day. The title panels and page design on the whole are excellently crafted, and even the celery stalk forest mirrors the white verticals of the nightshirts in the upper panels.
    In this sequence from 1905 in the NY Herald, Nemo and the Imp are lost as giants in a city. The dialogue balloons do not actually mirror the action, but still may feel as if they were put in as “afterthoughts” by McCay, due to the their organic and “smooshed” look.
    ______________
    Measuring Up to the Environment
    In some cases Watterson and others’ claims are certainly true, and the interaction and dialogue between Nemo, Flip and other denizens of Slumberland appears flat in comparison to the charm and personality that Slumberland itself can affect during the course of a Sunday strip.
    However, a close examination of McCay’s work as a whole reveals a variety of personality and growth for the main characters. Nemo’s own reticent nature may have been a purposeful choice on the part of McCay.
    Richard Marschall, editor of The Best of Little Nemo in Slumberland, wrote in his introduction to that book that Nemo’s name, the Latin translation of which is “No-One,” may actually have been a conscious decision to keep the main character as bland or passive as possible. According to Marschall, Nemo is the “every-man dreamer” who corresponds to the reader. Famed illustratorMaurice Sendak wrote of Nemo that one reason for his quietude and reticence during the journeys through Slumberland is that “Nemo lacks savior-faire. He is naive and as simple and straightforward as apple pie.”
    Descriptions of McCay’s characters as one-dimensional suggest readings of McCay’s work as single pages instead of as parts of a larger narrative whole. Nemo isn’t passive to the actions of Slumberland and supporting cast. Flip, the main antagonist and later a sort of “buddy” for Nemo may jump off the page at times with his zany jealousy and rivalries, but Nemo grows into his role as Slumberland explorer.
    Sendak actually laments one of the ways in which Nemo grows into his character, where Nemo and Flip come to blows, and Nemo wins. Sendak wrote: “A sad victory: Nemo exchanges childhood for manhood, never thinking he might have both.”
    Even in strips sans Flip, where Nemo plays off the Princess or a missive from Morpheus, his own personality comes through. In the case of Somnus, the horse he is given to arrive in Slumberland, Nemo is challenged to a race and lets his pride get the best of him—he is thrown off the horse and lands in bed. (1904, NY Herald)
    A second example is the moment where Nemo, overwhelmed by his desire for the beautiful Queen Crystalite, takes her in his arms in a big kiss and breaks her into a million pieces. (1906, NY Herald)
    _______
    While these emotive experiences do seem to fit in Sendak’s assertion that Nemo is perhaps exchanging his boyhood for manhood, Nemo’s personality does not seem to be permanently altered by the strips. The next Sunday, he is back to be being an unsure and cautious dreamer in a world which, many times, turns dangerous at any moment. These moments of assertive (and usually wrong-headed) “adultness” combined with his passivity and fearful approach as a child in a dangerous dreamworld serve to make Nemo a complete whole, instead of a onedimensional character who serves as a foil for the Slumberland and Flip. Just as dreams can have the dreamer childlike and afraid one night and aggressive the next, McCay allows Nemo the full range of possibilities.
    Above and below: Three examples from the NY Herald of Nemo being his non-character “coward” self afraid of an ogre, and then more expressive, five years later in an adventure on Mars.
    It’s Not All “Agout” Nemo
    Nemo isnt’ the only character who blossoms with a more complete reading of the work. Secondary characters evolve and change with the plot as well, as is the case when the brooding and wise Morpheus gets painful gout (NY Herald, 2 Jan, 1910) or later Nemo strips when the Princess and Nemo engage in play dates and get into trouble. Being secondary characters, they still aren’t as fully fleshed out as Nemo and Flip, but having them change means they are more than just the “brooding king” and “lonely princess” archetypes they seem at first brush.
    Gouty Morpheus, NY Herald, 2 Jan, 1910
    ________
    Hidden in Plain Sight
    What critics of the strip often forget is that Nemo, Flip and the denizens of Slumberland aren’t the only characters in McCay’s works. Slumberland itself is as much a character as any of the actors on its stage. When the strip was reinvented under a different name because of legal issues with the publisher owning the rights to the name of Little Nemo in Slumberland the strip name didn’t even include “Nemo.” Instead, it was penned as In the Land of Wonderful Dreams. Later, when the rights reverted and the strip was rebooted in the 1920s Nemo’s appellation did return. However, during the most popular Nemo strips (those taking place from 1908-1912) a main driving force behind action and narrative isn’t just the titular boy, it’s the world in which he finds himself.
    In Slumberland’s case many of the events that happen to normal comic book heroes, such as growth, change, conflict and resolution are present (sadly, most often the resolution for Slumberland is that the place falls to pieces or melts as a result of sunlight and deposits Nemo back into consciousness).
    In a typical Slumberland scene, Nemo is told not to touch something, he does, and as a result, unravels the very fabric of Slumberland. (1905, NY Herald)
    ______
    Right: Famed European illustrator Jean Giraud, aka “Moebius,” citesLittle Nemo as a great influence in his work and worked on his own version of the tale in 1994.
    Watterson also presented a critique of the design of Slumberland itself, saying that the environments look too “sterile” and, like his opinion of the characters, are more superficial than substantive. While McCay uses an art noveau line, which at times almost borders on (or also influenced– as in the case of many European artists like Moebius) the ligneclaire style, a question of sterility ends up really being a matter of taste. A reason for Watterson’s criticism could be simply that the differences between McCay’s architectural marvels and the and expressionistic planets or jungles that Watterson’s brushwork conjured are extreme. Again, it comes down to personal style. Watterson’s planets could not exist without Spaceman Spiff, but Slumberland doesn’t need Nemo to work.
    Great cartoonists like Watterson may not like McCay’s style, but there is no arguing with the care and talent with which McCay impregnated each page. “Every page is a marvel of design and ornament,” Watterson wrote. “The constant invention ,the playful distortions, the subtle coloring, the panoramas of architectural splendor… never has another comic strip taken such full advantage of the visual possibilities for surprise.”