Sahil R -- Blogmeister

Hurricane Katrina was in 2005 and was the costliest natural disasters as well as one of the five most deadliest hurricanes in the history of the Unites States. At least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the floods following it. It ended being a total property damage of $81 billion.

Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005 as a moderate Category 1 hurricane causing deaths and flooding. The storm weakened, but made it's second strike on August 29 in southeast Louisiana as a Category 3 hurricane. The most severe storm then went on to New Orleans and was a Category 5 hurricane.

Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005 as the result of an interaction of a tropical wave The storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf, growing from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in just nine hours. This rapid growth was due to the storm's movement over the "unusually warm" waters of the Loop Current, which increased wind speeds. On Saturday, August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm to nearly double in size. Katrina again rapidly intensified, attaining Category 5 status on the morning of August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1:00 p.m. CDT that day, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar. The pressure measurement made Katrina the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time (a record also later broken by Rita). and the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. The system was upgraded to tropical storm status on the morning of August 24 and at this point, the storm was given the name Katrina. The tropical storm continued to move towards Florida, and became a hurricane only two hours before it made landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering the Gulf of Mexico.

Katrina made its second landfall at 6:10 a.m. CDT on Monday, August 29 as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h) near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force winds extended outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar. After moving over southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound, it made its third landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi border with 120 mph (195 km/h) sustained winds, still at Category 3 intensity. Katrina maintained strength well into Mississippi, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi. It was downgraded to a tropical depression near Clarksville, Tennessee, but its remnants were last distinguishable in the eastern Great Lakes region on August 31, when it was absorbed by a frontal boundary. The resulting extratropical storm moved rapidly to the northeast and affected eastern Canada.

Alternative Energy- Geothermal Energy

Geothermal Energy is heat from within the Earth. It is a renewable energy source because the heat is continuously produced inside the Earth. Geothermal energy is generated in the Earth's core and temperatures hotter than the sun's surface are continuously produced inside the Earth by the slow decay of radioactive particles. This is a process that happens in all rocks. This energy is used in our technology by a direct use of hot water for bathing. There are also industrial ways of using geothermal energy such as food dehydration, gold mining, and milk pasteurizing. One common use of geothermal energy is the drying of vegetables and fruit products. Some positive aspects of geothermal energy is that it can transfer heat from the ground (or water) into buildings in winter and reverse the process in the summer. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, geothermal heat pumps are the most energy efficient and environmentally clean. The drawbacks to geothermal energy are that if you want to have it as a heat source you have to have a specific land requirement. It has to be a large rocky area or a pond. Also, it is very costly, so it will cost a lot of money to use geothermal energy. Geothermal Energy is used a lot in the U.S. including many power plants, but it is mostly used in western United States and Hawaii. California generates the most electricity from geothermal energy.

A geothermic power station.

Bibliography:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=geothermal_home-basics-k.cfm

https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=422&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=14&mode=2">https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=422&parentname=CommunityPage&parentid=14&mode=2

http://geothermal.marin.org/pwrheat.html

Tonight Jan 11 Wed 12 Thu 13 Fri 14 Sat 15

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As you all know, tomorrow is a snow day for us! (Horray!!) We all think that it will be really really fun, but it actually may not because the weather(as shown above) is not really well. Tonight is said to be a 100% chance of snow and it will be freezing outside. It will start at about 9:00 and 35% of all of the snow will fall from 9 to 10. Now, here's where it gets serious. At 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. it will constantly snow and 85-90% of all the snow will come then. Then it will slow down at 3, but it's not over yet! It will still consistently snow for another few hours! This will be a lot of snow! Remeber to have a snowball fight when everythings over!!!!

End of the World even closer!!!

Read article on this site:

http://www.suntimes.com/3154252-417/martin-doomsday-believers-faith-group.html

Is it really true? Is the end really closer than the Mayans predicted, which was December 21, 2012. In this article, a man named Harold Camping said the end of the world is not December 21, 2012, but instead May 21, 2011. Harold said that he depicted a code in the bible by using mathematical interpretations that he created to see hidden prophecies in the bible. Some reporters say this statement may be true because there were animal deaths in Arkansaws that may be the start of an apocalypse. In my opinion, I think this is not going to happen at all, but I do think that 2012 is going to happen because the Mayans were smart people and they had so much intelligence even though they were not that civilized.

More thn half the season is over and we already have a clue on who is going to make the playoffs and will not!! Like the Cowboys... yea their record is like 4-8 and of course they have no chance. On the other hand there are the Atlanta Falcons who are on a winning streak right now and they are 10-2. Not far from them are the Saints with a record of 9-3 who are the former champs that hope to repeat it again! Now, many of you know that I am a Giants fan and they are my number one pick for the super bowl, but they got a proble... the Eagles! The Eagles are tied with the Giants while Michael Vick and Eli Manning ae both leading the teams. Next week the Giants are playing Brett Favre(unless he is still injured) and the Vikings while the Eagles are playing the Cowboys who unfortunately... are horrible this season!! Even though I'm a Giant fan I also root for the Jets every once in a while, but last week I was laughing hysterically when they got served by the Patriots 45-3. After a sad loss Rex said "We're still ok!..." and to me it's like saying what are we supposed to do now! Unlike last week, Sanchez and the team have to step it up a notch next week against the Dolphins while they hope that the Patriots lose against Cutler and the Bears. Here are my tw teams for the Super Bowl this year:

VS.

NOW THE QUESTION IS.... WHO'S YOUR PICK?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20101116/sc_space/lookingforearthlikealienplanetsfocusontheblueones

Questions:

1) Why do scientist want to find a "blue" planet instead of another colored planet? Does this mean anything?

2) Do you think that if we find a blue planet, it will be similar to Earth? Explain why or why not.

3) What do you think we would do if we found a planet that was blue, but was inhabited by aliens?

For the past few years, the biggest talk for all astronomers was if there are other planets or other types of people (aliens)? Well, now we are gaining more information on other planets that may have life on them. For humans to survive, there must be water and oxygen on the planet, but we may not know if there are aliens actually living on that planet which don’t need either water or oxygen to survive. One planet that was found was part of the Goldilocks planets and it was said to be approximately 20 light years away! Scientist say that it could have liquid water on its surface but the problem is that the sun only hits one half of the planet. This means the other half will be dark forever. If humans ever do reach that planet then they will have to adapt to the surrounding environment! To me this is a great lead in science because now we know Earth is not one of its kind and other planets could help us humans survive. According to other information, the Goldilocks planet, Gliese, also has a similar rotation sequence to ours. It is tidally locked to it’s sun, so it rotates once a year (37 earth days). In my opinion, we will certainly find more on this planet, and who knows it could be the most similar to earth scientist have ever seen and maybe… there are aliens there!

If you would like to read more on this go to:

http://space.about.com/b/2010/10/01/astronomers-find-planet-that-could-support-life.htm