More Deaths Reported In Violent Weather Across U.S.

Another wave of severe weather is expected from the Deep South through the Great Lakes region, and storms could spawn tornadoes in a number of areas. That's after violent weather ripped through the South for a second straight night, killing at least eight people, damaging homes and causing widespread destruction and injuries.

The latest round of severe weather Tuesday night and early Wednesday came a day after a series of powerful storms killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

A firefighter (left) covers the survivor of a tornado that destroyed her mobile home east of Ben Wheeler, Texas, on Tuesday. She was shaken and had some minor bruises but otherwise escaped without serious injuries.
Enlarge Jaime R. Carrero/AP

A firefighter (left) covers the survivor of a tornado that destroyed her mobile home east of Ben Wheeler, Texas, on Tuesday. She was shaken and had some minor bruises but otherwise escaped without serious injuries.

Jaime R. Carrero/AP

A firefighter (left) covers the survivor of a tornado that destroyed her mobile home east of Ben Wheeler, Texas, on Tuesday. She was shaken and had some minor bruises but otherwise escaped without serious injuries.

A police officer on a camping trip was killed shielding his daughter when a tree limb fell on their tent in a northern Mississippi state park. The victim, from Covington, La., was not immediately identified.

"He covered his daughter with his body when the storm came through to protect her. A tree limb fell and hit him in the head, killing him. The daughter was not hurt. She was still at the campground waiting for family to arrive," Choctaw County, Miss., Coroner Keith Coleman said.

Also in Mississippi, a man was crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell during the storm, and a truck driver died after hitting a downed tree on a state highway. None of the victims have been identified.

In Alabama, where the governor declared a state of emergency, one person was killed in the northern part of the state when a tree fell on a car. Two people died in St. Clair County in central Alabama and another in Jackson County in the northeast, though emergency officials did not say how.

And in Arkansas, the Department of Emergency Management confirmed early Wednesday that one person died in a storm in Sharp County. Officials didn't know exactly how the person died or whether a tornado had touched down in the area.

In Louisiana, police were investigating whether two deaths in Monroe were storm-related. The body of a woman was found early Wednesday in a vehicle that had become trapped in a flooded underpass, and the body of a man was found later on a flooded street.

Severe storms in northwest Georgia downed trees, blew out windows in a hospital and tore off part of a school roof. Much of north and central Georgia was bracing for another round of thunderstorms later Wednesday. A tornado watch had been issued.

In eastern Tennessee, what appeared to be a tornado struck just outside Chattanooga in Tiftonia, at the base of the tourist peak Lookout Mountain. Tops were snapped off trees and insulation and metal roof panels littered the ground.

The National Weather Service had issued a high-risk warning for severe weather from northeast of Memphis to just northeast of Dallas and covering a large swath of Arkansas. It last issued such a warning on April 16, when dozens of tornadoes hit North Carolina and killed 21 people.

Emergency management officials in Alabama said two suspected tornadoes touched down in Marshall County, about 70 miles northeast of Birmingham, causing widespread injuries and damage.

"There are people trapped in mobile homes, in vehicles. We've got trees down all over, power lines down all over. It's all over the county," said Phil Mayer, working in the county emergency management office.

Cleanup begins in a Vilonia, Ark., neighborhood Tuesday after a tornado struck the area late Monday. The storm system killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.
Enlarge Danny Johnston/AP

Cleanup begins in a Vilonia, Ark., neighborhood Tuesday after a tornado struck the area late Monday. The storm system killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

Danny Johnston/AP

Cleanup begins in a Vilonia, Ark., neighborhood Tuesday after a tornado struck the area late Monday. The storm system killed 10 people in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

The weather service didn't immediately confirm twister damage, but forecasters had issued several tornado warnings and said winds blew as hard as 70 mph, just short of hurricane force.

High winds also damaged a hangar at the Birmingham airport.

Dozens of tornado warnings were issued in Arkansas throughout the night. Strong winds peeled part of the roof off of a medical building next to a hospital in West Memphis, near the Tennessee border, but no one was inside.

At least one person was injured when a storm slammed through the tiny town of Edom some 75 miles east of Dallas late Tuesday, said Fire Chief Eddie Wood. Witnesses described seeing what they thought was a tornado rolling the woman's mobile home with her inside.

A video shot by the Tyler Morning Telegraph showed emergency responders covering the injured woman to shield her from rain and hail. Her mobile home was reduced to a pile of debris in the road.

"We have multiple houses damaged or destroyed," said Chuck Allen, Van Zandt County emergency management spokesman. He said he would survey the area by helicopter Wednesday to get an accurate count.

Ted Ryan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said at least one tornado almost certainly hit between Edom and the town of Van to the north. He said the weather service would send a team to the area Wednesday to assess the damage and determine the strength of the storm.

A Map Of Areas Affected By Flooding

At daybreak Wednesday, residents on the outskirts of the small, rural community started to clear up the damage from the storm. The area was littered with uprooted trees, some had split in half and others landed on homes.

In West Tennessee, heavy rain prompted the evacuation of a military base near Memphis. Military officials moved 122 personnel from the naval support base at Millington to hotels after a stream began flooding a low-lying section of the base, WMC-TV reported.

The latest round of storms moved through as communities in much of the region struggled with flooding and damage from earlier twisters.

In Missouri, communities were coping with rivers flooding from relentless rain. The southern part of the state had 15 inches of rain over four days. An overnight storm dumped another 2 inches on Poplar Bluff, where the Black River poured over spots along the earthen levee that protects the town. About 1,000 homes were evacuated Monday when the river spilled over the levee and flooded low-lying neighborhoods and farmland.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon deployed the Missouri National Guard to help with water rescues. More than 150 people were plucked from porches, attics, and rooftops between Poplar Bluff and the neighboring town of Qulan, some 15 miles downstream. Butler County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Evans described the scene as "surreal."

"It's the biggest lake I've ever seen, I guess. The bottom part of the county is all flat and it's farmland. And it's pretty much covered," he said. An estimated 7,000 people live in the flooded area.

Poplar Bluff police Capt. Mike McClain said Wednesday that the levee had held up overnight and that there had been no reports of injuries.

A Life-Saving Early Warning?

There were six deaths reported in flooding across Arkansas, and four more people were killed in Vilonia, just north of Little Rock, where a tornado Monday night ripped the roof off the grocery store, flattened homes and tossed vehicles into the air.

An early warning may have saved resident Lisa Watson's life. She packed up her three children and was speeding away from the Black Oak Ranch subdivision when she looked to her left and saw the twister approach. Two of her neighbors died in their mobile homes, and a visiting couple who took shelter in a metal shipping container where the husband stored tools died when the container was blown at least 150 feet into a creek.

Jimmy Talley said his brother, David, told his mother that he and his wife, Katherine, were leaving the mobile home they'd been staying in because they thought the container would be safe.

"He said, `I love you, Mom,' and that's the last that anybody heard from him," Jimmy Talley said.

The tornado also reduced the mobile home the couple had been staying in to a pile of boards and belongings. The other victims were Charles Mitchell, 55, and a 63-year-old man whose name has not yet been released.

Holding 'The Doorknob In One Hand And Kids In The Other'

Faulkner County Judge Preston Scroggin said the tornado tore through an area 3 miles wide and 15 miles long, and he thought more people might have died if the residents hadn't been receiving warnings about a possible outbreak of tornadoes since the weekend and the local weather office hadn't issued a warning almost 45 minutes before the twister hit Vilonia.

Sally Lanham of Vilonia said a twister went right through her front yard.

"You could see the rotation in the cloud. And we could see debris flying. But it missed the house. It took the tool shed, knocked down huge trees," she said.

Elsewhere in Arkansas, a tornado did not spare the house where Richard Bass and his family were taking shelter.

"Listened to, uh, windows shattering, doors slamming, and then heard the roof go," Bass said. "And I just held onto the doorknob for dear life ? doorknob in one hand and kids in the other."

Jacob McCleland of member station KRCU reported for this story, which contains material from The Associated Press.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135758810/deadly-storms-pound-south-for-2nd-straight-day?ft=1&f=1003

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Jess Jackson, Vintner Turned Racehorse Owner, Dies

Jess Jackson (right) greets his jockey Calvin Borel and his horse Rachel Alexandra in the winner's circle after she took the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in September 2009.
Enlarge Mike Groll/AP Photo

Jess Jackson (right) greets his jockey Calvin Borel and his horse Rachel Alexandra in the winner's circle after she took the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in September 2009.

Mike Groll/AP Photo

Jess Jackson (right) greets his jockey Calvin Borel and his horse Rachel Alexandra in the winner's circle after she took the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in September 2009.

Jess Jackson, the founder of the Kendall-Jackson winery who became a leading racehorse owner in his later years, died of cancer Thursday in his Geyserville, Calif., home. He was 81.

As a California vintner, Jackson built a multimillion-dollar empire on chardonnay with his popular Kendall-Jackson brand before moving into the horse-racing business with his Stonestreet Stable.

He owned two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, then bought Rachel Alexandra, who became the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness, the second leg of racing's Triple Crown.

Rachel Alexandra went on to beat the boys again in the Haskell Invitational and the Woodward Stakes on her way to Horse of the Year honors.

She retired in the summer of 2010 and was bred to Curlin in February.
"We have been anticipating this introduction for some time now," Jackson said at the time. "Imagine what possibilities those two superhorses might produce."

The superfoal is due next February.

The 'Mountain Man' Of The Wine World

A familiar figure in wine country with his strong-boned face and shock of white hair, Jackson packed three careers into his long life: He retired from a law practice to build his wine company, then jumped into horse racing.

He was known as the "mountain man" in the California wine world for his enthusiasm for the high-end grapes produced by the state's rocky slopes. A fixture on Forbes magazine's list of richest Americans in recent years, he was engaging and scholarly in person, liable to launch into a detailed description of grape propagation or a discourse on American history.

Jackson was born in Los Angeles in 1930 and raised in San Francisco, spending summers picking grapes in wine country.

After earning a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, he built a career as an attorney in the San Francisco Bay area, specializing in land-use and property rights law.

Jackson's wine career began when he bought an 80-acre pear and walnut orchard in Lakeport, ostensibly for relaxation. But it wasn't long before he felt the lure of winemaking. He converted the orchard into a vineyard and founded Kendall-Jackson Winery in 1982. (Jane Kendall was his first wife.)

A slight accident helped boost early success when the fermentation "stuck," meaning less of the grape sugar was converted to alcohol and the wine was a little sweeter, a plus for soda-loving Americans.

KJ Vintner's Reserve became known for consistent quality in a moderate price range, and the privately held company went on to sell millions of cases a year. Jackson later established Jackson Family Wines with his second wife, Barbara Banke, which included a number of high-end brands, including Cardinale and Lokoya.

The Lure Of The Track

Jackson raced thoroughbreds for a time in the 1960s with an uncle but didn't enter the sport on a larger scale until 2003. He named his horse farms and racing operation Stonestreet Stables after his father; Stonestreet was also Jackson's middle name.

In 2004, he spent nearly $22 million to buy 95 horses, mostly broodmares.

Jackson bought a 31 percent interest in Curlin in 2007 in a partnership, then later bought another partner's share that gave him 80 percent ownership. Curlin won the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic by four lengths that year and earned Eclipse Awards as Horse of the Year and outstanding 3-year-old.

Jackson also made his mark on the sport in other ways, becoming a forceful advocate for developing a league featuring older horses, to keep them running instead of being shipped to the breeding shed.

Throughout his career, Jackson never entirely lost his taste for law, going to court when he felt it necessary to protect his interests.

He once tangled with wine giant E. & J. Gallo in an unsuccessful copycat label lawsuit.

In 2005, Jackson filed a suit accusing former advisers of fraud for inflating prices that he paid for horses. He eventually reached settlements with several of the parties.

That prompted Jackson to push legislation in Kentucky to protect horse owners by preventing agents from profiting from undisclosed payments and commissions. It was signed into law in March 2006.

Jackson is survived by his second wife, five children and two grandchildren.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135614798/jess-jackson-vintner-turned-racehorse-owner-dies?ft=1&f=1001

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If Music Be Thy Dream Of Filthy Lucre, Press Stop

I always enjoy seeing science fiction prophecies come true. Last month, Broadcastr. This month, Wolfram Alpha?s WolframTones, modestly subtitled ?A New Kind Of Music.? (Yes, that would be the same breathtaking humility that led them to originally price the Wolfram Alpha app at a hilarious $50. Fortunately, they subsequently bought a clue.)

It is pretty cool, in a geeky sort of way: music generated by fractally complex cellular automata, in the style of your choice?classical, dance, rock/pop, hip-hop, etcetera. Every composition is unique, and can be downloaded as a ringtone. They lay claim to the copyright on all the generated music, mind you, raising the interesting question of what counts as ?fair use?, but I?ll leave that rant to Cory Doctorow. What sort of saddens me about WolframTones is that it?s yet another nail in the coffin of ten million teenage dreams of musical superstardom.

I don?t know if its creator Peter Overmann is a fan of the great Australian science-fiction writer Greg Egan, but I do know that he?s just recapitulated something Egan described twenty years ago in his book Quarantine, in a paragraph that has stayed with me since:

I flop onto my bed, and switch on the room?s audio system. The controlling ROM I?ve been playing lately, ?Paradise? by Angela Renfield, is one of hundreds of thousands of identical copies, but each piece it creates is guaranteed unique. Renfield has set certain parameters for the music, but others are provided by pseudorandom functions, seeded with the date, the time and the audio system?s serial number.

The copyright question leaps to mind because WolframTones is yet another entry in the arsenal of resources that today?s musicians can (and probably will, regardless of the legality) sample and remix. It?s getting crazy-easy to make music these days. Gorillaz? new album The Fall was recorded entirely on an iPad while they were in tour, and they?ve since even released their own iPad instrument. Imagine what they?ll do with the iPad 2 and its new GarageBand. Meanwhile, numerous sites allow musicians to collaborate online.

Heck, why bother learning how to play? Or sing? Consider Ark Music Factory, the evil masterminds behind Rebecca Black?s Friday. For only a few thousand dollars, they?ll write and record your music, shoot your pop-idol video, and AutoTune your voice. Meanwhile, the music industry is kind of dying, meaning there?s less money to spread across more artists. Sure, touring can still be lucrative ? but most of that money goes to those who built their brand before the modern era. There are and always will be meteoric new exceptions, but they?re increasingly rare. Music has grown so fragmented and overpopulated that just finding good new music has become a big problem in and of itself1.

I keep tabs on the music industry mostly because they tend to be a harbinger for other kinds of entertainment (not least because the music industry released all their wares in a non-DRMed electronic format, also known as the CD, before they quite realized what they had done.) What happens to music will happen to books, and then video games, and then TV/movies. We?ll see fewer and fewer professional musicians, writers, and filmmakers; instead we?ll see vastly more high-quality work created by part-time hobbyists aided by flashy new technology, and fewer and fewer crossover moneymaking hits. This may be great for fans?we?ll see?but I hope you don?t dream of making music / writing books / directing movies for a living. It was never easy, and thanks to all this amazing new technology, it?s getting even harder every day.

1Full disclosure: I?m currently doing some contract development work for a semi-stealth mode startup named Rexly who are trying to solve that problem.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/m1ELTUlMYqc/

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JoTo Extreme PR - The Credibility Makers - Karla Jo Helms

What is PR? It's the medium through which your company becomes?well-known and respected, so that individuals and corporations are more comfortable and interested in doing business with you.?Simply put, Public Relations is a way to generate wide acceptance for an individual, brand or company.

This blog is my outlet to showcase the good, the bad and the ugly of PR - and why, when used right, can make business easier to navigate.

Feel free to share this blog with your colleagues and friends, and help them better understand the power of PR. And if you've got any questions about PR, comment on a post and I 'll reply right away!

Contributed by Karla Jo Helms

Source: http://karlajohelms.posterous.com/joto-extreme-prs-new-website-launch

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Buddy Miller And Patty Griffin On World Cafe

Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller recently performed on World Cafe.
Enlarge Courtesy of the artist

Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller recently performed on World Cafe.

Courtesy of the artist

Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller recently performed on World Cafe.

  • "Does My Ring Burn Your Finger?"
  • "Shelter Me"
  • "Gasoline And Matches"
  • "Heart Of Hearts"
  • "You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover"
  • "Somewhere Trouble Don't Go"

Holding a title as one of the best guitarists in Nashville has to mean that you've achieved something akin to legendary status in the music world ? and that's exactly what Buddy Miller has done. Born in '50s Ohio, the singer-songwriter took the stage for the first time in the '60s as an upright bassist in high-school combos. Since that time, Miller has produced, written, recorded and played enough music to have fellow legends such as Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris describe him as one of the greatest musicians alive.

Miller was joined for this session by Grammy-winning singer Patty Griffin. Though Griffin and Miller have collaborated on previous occasions, they recently teamed up for Griffin's Downtown Church, which Miller produced. In turn, Griffin lends her talents to Miller's recent solo album The Majestic Silver Strings, which also features contributions from Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Greg Leisz and more.

Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin join World Cafe host David Dye from this year's Cayamo Cruise. Here, the two talk about the power of music and their work together on both albums.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135703839/buddy-miller-and-patty-griffin-on-world-cafe?ft=1&f=39

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9 Tools to Help You Stay Green on Earth Day [Toolkit]

Earth Day is this Friday. And it's always good to take a moment to think about ways to screw up this planet a little less. Realistically, we're not going to give up our gadgets (which aren't always environmentally friendly), but we can at least come up with ways to make them less destructive, ya know?: More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/X4v8ch_oC7M/9-tools-to-help-you-stay-green-on-earth-day

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Video: Tina Fey Teaches Google?s Eric Schmidt About Comedy

Turns out Tina Fey can make even tech nerds funny. During a Q&A with Google?s Eric Schmidt, the 30 Rock creator explained the rules of improv and tried to engage the executive chairman in a quick comedic bout ? until they ?hit a brick wall.?

?This is the problem with an engineer trying to learn improv,? Schmidt said after the bit went south.

The pair?s attempt at off-the-cuff comedy didn?t exactly kill, as can be seen in the video above, but watching a Saturday Night Live alum try to teach one of Silicon Valley?s most influential nerds how to be funny has a humor all its own.

Fey gave Schmidt the crash course at the Googleplex last week as part of the tech company?s Authors@Google series to promote her new book, Bossypants.

Beyond lessons in making ?em laugh, Fey also riffed on her desire to play a judge on Law & Order (?The hours and the outfit appeal to me?), the differences between male and female comedy writers (?The secret truth is that men urinate in cups?), and even Google itself (?I use Google a lot. But I don?t Google myself?).

During the nearly hour-long ?fireside chat? (there is no visible fire), Fey ? whose daughter?s gangsta walk made her more famous than her mother online earlier this month ? took questions from Google employees and from the internet. Responding to a question from a Googler, she said she would ?absolutely? consider giving Schmidt a guest spot on 30 Rock.

?You?re just the kind of guest star that would keep our ratings low,? Fey told Schmidt.

Angela is a reporter for the Underwire, Wired.com's pop culture blog. She is also a senior editor of Longshot magazine.
Follow @WaterSlicer and @theunderwire on Twitter.

Source: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/04/video-tina-fey-eric-schmidt/

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Office space planning Done Correctly Increases Productivity ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Office space planning Done Correctly Increases Productivity. Posted on April 20, 2011 by admin. An office refurbishment is desired by most all of those in charge of a business or professional office. What comes in the way of the office ...

Source: http://www.stylewars2010.com/office-space-planning-done-correctly-increases-productivity

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Get a Grip on Your Camera with the Flipbac Camera Grips

Most small digital cameras seem to be about the size and shape of a deck of cards these days.? That’s nice for fitting it into your gear bag, but most of those cameras are flat, smooth, and slippery – and hard to hold.? Flipbac Innovations has developed a grip – inspired by the built-in grips [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/04/26/get-a-grip-on-your-camera-with-the-flipbac-camera-grips/

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Just Indulge ?Em: Crust Cutter

My parenting or kid-monitoring skills are simplistic: just shut ‘em up if there is little or no work on my part.? These crust cutters (this one available from Amazon, $7) is the type of gadget that fulfills that philosophy. For anyone who just doesn’t want to deal with crust (pie crust not included, of course), [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/04/26/just-indulge-em-crust-cutter/

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