At least 51 people were killed and more than 250,000 displaced after tropical storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rainfall on the Philippine capital in more than four decades, officials said Sunday.

Desperate residents were stranded on rooftops after the nine-hour deluge on Saturday turned Manila’s highways into raging rivers that swept away shanties and cars.

“This is the worst (flooding) that I have seen,” Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, who is heading the rescue efforts, said as he announced that 51 people had been confirmed killed with at least 21 still missing

The deluge left some areas of the sprawling city of 12 million people under up to six metres (20 feet) of water, forcing the government to declare a “state of calamity” that allowed authorities to use emergency funds.

A Filipino boy is carried to safety through floodwaters brought by Tropical Storm Ketsana in the Quezon City suburb of Manila.

More than 4,000 people have been rescued, either plucked by army helicopters from their homes or by rubber boats but many remained stranded on Sunday afternoon.

“If you are on the roof, don’t try to leave. Just remain there and we will do everything to rescue you,” Teodoro said in a radio broadcast.

In suburban Pasig city however, panicked residents were seen wading dangerously through neck-deep waters hoisting their children and belongings above their heads.

Amid the chaos, hospitals in the eastern part of the city were evacuated, while telephone and power lines were cut, officials said.

One of Manila?s three airport terminals was also closed on Saturday, affecting several flights and stranding hundreds of passengers.

Teodoro said the storm had displaced nearly 280,000 people in Manila and five outlying provinces, with more than 41,000 victims seeking refuge in evacuation centres.

He said the floodwaters and the large numbers of stranded vehicles blocking roads were giving rescuers “a hard time” as they sought to reach those affected.

While the rains had temporarily ceased Sunday, Teodoro said more flooding may hit northern provinces if reservoirs burst their banks.

Philippine Red Cross chairwoman Gwendolyn Pang said rescuers were struggling to reach many areas, with many highways rendered impassable.

“This has never happened before. Almost 80 percent of metropolitan Manila is underwater,” Pang told AFP.

In the district of Marikina, one of the worst-hit areas, rescuers waded in muddy floodwaters to reach the stranded, Red Cross official Dave Barnuevo said.

“The water is taking a long time to go down. The water is muddy and thick, and we have had to push our rubber boats in neck-deep flood (waters) in some areas,” Barnuevo told AFP.

“We have rescued entire families marooned in their homes. They have not eaten and begged for food and water.”

The government’s chief weather forecaster Prisco Nilo blamed “climate change” for the severity of the storm.

He said that total rainfall for the nine-hour deluge was 41.6 centimetres (16 inches), breaking the previous single-day record of 33.4 centimetres in July 1967.

Heading north for a sunset session…

Chlidonias niger  Guifette noire  /  Black Tern

The Black Tern does not dive to feed itself. It prefers by far to catch insects, larvae, molluscs, shrimp and small fish, either in flight or on the water’s surface. Nesting in fresh waters, the Black Tern loves the marshes, the vegetation-edged ponds and the lakeshores and riverbanks located in southern Québec. Its length is 23 to 27 cm and its average wingspan is 61 cm.

La guifette noire ne plonge pas pour s’alimenter. Elle préfère de loin saisir les insectes, les larves, les mollusques, les écrevisses et les petits poissons en plein vol ou à la surface de l’eau. Nicheuse en eau douce, la guifette noire adore les marais, les étangs bordés de végétation et les bords de lacs et de rivières situés dans le sud du Québec. Elle mesure de 23 à 27 cm et son envergure moyenne est de 61 cm.

About 100 million years old, the Great Blue Heron is of a slate-blue colour. Present in all the regions of Québec and the Maritimes, it spends the winter mostly in the United States and Central America. It nests in colonies on wooded islands or flooded forests, where it can nourish itself suitably by day as well as by night. Its diet is made up essentially of fish, but is complemented with amphibians, insects, crustaceans, small mammals, and even fledglings. Its life expectancy is about 17 years, but is currently threatened by the draining of swamps, the destruction of its sanctuaries, and the pesticides that diminish its reproductive capacity and cause it to die. Its length is 108 to 132 cm.

Espèce vieille d’environ 100 millions d’années, le grand Héron est de couleur bleu ardoise. Présent dans toutes les régions du Québec et des Maritimes, il hiverne surtout aux États-Unis et en Amérique Centrale. Il niche en colonies dans des îles boisées ou des forêts inondées, là où il peut s’alimenter convenablement de jour comme de nuit. Son régime alimentaire se compose essentiellement de poissons mais se complète par des amphibiens, des insectes, des crustacés, de petits mammifères et même d’oisillons. Son espérance de vie est d’environ 17 ans mais celle-ci est menacée par l’assèchement des marais, la destruction de ses refuges et les pesticides qui diminuent sa capacité de reproduction et qui provoquent son décès. Sa longueur varie entre 108 et 132 cm.

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Larus glaucoides  Goéland arctique  /  Iceland Gull

The Iceland Gull nests in colonies in the far north of the Nouveau-Québec region and in the Arctic. Temporarily present in Greenland during the nesting period, it spends the winter in the South, along the Québec seaboard and in the Maritimes. Its diet is varied and made up of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and small organisms that it finds on the water’s surface. During the breeding period, it complements its diet with guillemot eggs. The length of the Iceland Gull is 57 to 64 cm and its average wingspan is 137 cm.

Le goéland arctique niche en colonies dans l’extrême nord du Nouveau-Québec et dans l’Arctique. De passage au Grœnland en période de nidification, il hiverne au Sud, dans le littoral du Québec et dans les Maritimes. Son régime alimentaire est varié et se compose de poissons, de mollusques, de crustacés et de petits organismes qu’il trouve à la surface de l’eau. En période de reproduction, il complète son alimentation par des œufs de guillemots. Le goéland arctique a une longueur de 57 à 64 cm et une envergure moyenne de 137 cm.

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Full article and photos: http://www.mcq.org/audubon/catalogue/audubon_001.html

I need a room mate. Off of 280 in bham, weirdos need not apply. Plus if you know we won’t get along, be serious (Devin, I love you but we would fight! haha)

I have 2 cats. Very spacious, pretty much empty living room (Clint is taking most of that). Your bedroom will be small (not enough for an adult and child, just one of ya) has a small closet big plus, it’s the coldest room in the house for some reason!,

if you can cook=a plus because I can’t. So we can work out something like I buy you cook.

2 bathrooms. I have a walk in closet we can share. Lease is up on March 17, then I’ll prolly move, unless you totally rock. I’ve got a washer/dryer, microwave, dishwasher, all that fun stuff.
Balcony (that I’m about to screen in with my ninja skills. Vaulted ceilings. Hit me up if you are serious MUST HAVE A JOB or some sort of steady income. I can basically live here by myself, but I need to save up for a new car.

If you are a girl, please not catty shit, and we can share clothes and all of that jazz. I have a GINORMOUS book collection that you can use, if you don’t dog-ear books or anything like that.

must be nice to my cats or I’ll kill you with my bare hands, they are actually quite sweet.

They don’t have ANY fleas.

Sometimes my 16 year old sister and one of her friends stays the night with me, so if that’s a problem, keep looking.

There’s a full gym, hot tub, raquettball room, tennis court, and swimming pool.

Rent is $680 (plus utilities, usually runs about $755) a month, which is pretty cheap for this area, very safe

Don’t have cable yet, but will, the basic will be $35 a month, some deal with charter since we can’t get satellite.

Seriously, hit me up:o) or if you know a noncrazy person that I can live with.

I have no qualms with MY guy friends moving any, strictly platonic, but if I don’t know you, it likely won’t happen.

I can post pics and what not, but am too lazy at the moment.

280 is VERY safe, BUT is VERY busy, so expect a LOT of traffic!!!

If you smoke, you gotta do it on the balcony, I’m super allergic, and no meth or any crap like that:o) that’s only fair!

It seems to be Fog Week here in the San Francisco blogosphere.  Plug1 took this fantastic shot from a plane this weekend of our vapor-ladened friend attacking the bridge:

My meager efforts are limited to ground based fogtography. 280 North, just before 380, taken from my cleverly designed iPhone windshield mount — click the images below for melodramatic cross-faded quicktimes:

When it’s piled up and roiling like that, I can’t help but feel like I’m driving towards Mt. St. Helens.

Red Label Hitched Skirt – £280, purchased from Vivienne Westwood Boutique, Newcastle, June 2008.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label hitched skirt with brown orb side button and signature lining. This is my favourite piece of Viv, but I’ve only worn it once – ever! So if there was a reasonable offer I may be willing to sell, as long as she was to go to a good home:)

Ms. Judy Pink.

Infrastructure is the theme of this month’s Blueprint, from the real to the surreal, the mundane to the fantastical. The cover story is COVRA’s nuclear waste facility situated in the south-west of the Netherlands. Painted bright orange and adorned with the fundamental equations of nuclear physics by Dutch artist William Verstraeten, the high-level waste facility on the site has been described as Holland’s ‘largest work of art’. Now, COVRA’s other waste facilities are being used to store artifacts from local art museums. Peter Kelly reports on this strange fusion of art and nuclear infrastructure, which strives to make buildings associated with atomic energy into symbols of national pride.Meanwhile, in London, it seems that some of the best architecture to come out of the 2012 Olympics may well be its plant buildings. Drawing on Stratford’s historic vernacular for inspiration, an electricity sub-station by Nord in textured brick and a concrete pumping station by John Lyall are two projects that look set to leave a great legacy. CABE has used them as examples to design infrastructure across the country.

This June, one of the centerpieces of the Venice Art Biennale will be a utopian installation by the venerable Yona Friedman. A visionary artist and architect whose plans for city superstructures and high-speed rail systems have been inspirational to younger generations, Friedman talks to Tim Abrahams about his life’s work. Also in this issue, Erik Spiekermann argues that the time is ripe for designers and architects to shed their artistic outlook and for clients to appreciate design as integral to a place’s fabric, while architect Neven Sidor says that the UK could learn a lesson from the Netherlands’ public-spirited approach to its ambitious infrastructure projects.

We also look at the latest project from Sixteen*(Makers), an experimental studio which has designed one of five new shelters for visitors to Kielder Forest; Vicky Richardson and Gian Luca Amadei pick their favourite products and furniture from this year’s furniture fair in Milan; the Cabanon competition winners are announced; Christopher Rainbow takes on architects and infrastructure in his latest cartoon; and much more…

Via & more: Blueprint

MakeUseOf has a post on 280Slides, the Powerpoint Viewer and Builder.

“280Slides is a dead-simple online Powerpoint viewer and builder tool. Using 280Slides you can create Powerpoint presentations online, download presentations to your PC, upload and view existing presentations online, and share them with friends. The cool thing about it, the presentations that you create with 280Slides can be easily downloaded and edited using Microsoft Powerpoint. No download required, the only thing you need is a web browser and an internet connection. The app has pretty much all the features necessary to create simple presentations online.”

So create a presentation (on your computer and upload, or directly at 280Slides) and have it available anyplace you have an Internet connection, no matter whose computer you’re using or what software they do or don’t have (as long as they have a standard web browser).

The iPhone camera picks up some pretty nice blue at twilight.

Here’s hoping for a red sunset soon.

Go QuadCamera!  Love the QuadAnimator for extracting the images into a multiframe GIF. Yet more Japanese software goodness.

Avui és el programa 280 d’El crepuscle encén estels. i tenim la visita d’un selenita cineasta; a més, com a bon divendres, comptam amb la secció de “Star System”. Aquests darrers dies hem pogut observar que el cinema, sobretot el cinema més espectacular –apte per al públic familiar-, ha arribat a les televisions en època de Nadal i Reis com un autèntic vendaval: Superman, Harry Potter, Pirates del Carib… i algun episodi d’El Senyor dels Anells. Aquesta trilogia (“La comunitat de l’anell”, “Les dues torres”, i “El retorn del Rei”) dirigida per Peter Jackson i basada en l’obra de J. R. R. Tolkien, va obtenir un gran nombre de premis: un total de 30 nominacions als Òscars, de les quals en va aconseguir 17, i una recaptació conjunta rècord de, precisament, 280 milions de dòlars

…com 280 són els programes del Crepuscle que duim fins el dia d’avui

mms://194.179.36.187/IB3Radio

Noa, nu stiu altii cum sunt, dar eu sunt o persoana tare rabdatoare de felul meu. Trebuie sa ma sacai tare mult sa cedez nervos (sau ma rog sa fiu tare beat).

Am fost destul de rabdator zic eu cu cei de la Orange si cu mesajele lor, 4/zi, in doua transe. Daca ai fost si tu la fel de rabdator, chiar daca stiu ca i-ai injurat in fiecare zi de 4 ori, suna la 280, apasa tasta 4 si asteapta sa intre domnisoara, pe care sa nu o injuri. O rogi frumos sa nu iti mai trimita msg de la 123 si dupa poti sa-i zici de frati, surori, mama, tata si toate rudele, din tara si din strainatate.

Nu nu ii duma de genu se inchide yahoo si trimite la toti din lista!

Somn usor!

Hasta ahora ATI ocupaba el “trono” de la gráfica más potente con su HD4870X2, pero Nvidia ha lanzado un modelo aún mas potente.

La nueva gráfica es una espécia de hibrido entre la GTX260 y la GTX280 multiplicandolo por dos, ya que es dual. Su diseño, como es común en las gráficas Nvidia, es en forma de caja, con las gráficas al “estilo sandwich”.

En los Benchmarks es superior a las gráfias de ATI, pero hay que tener algo en cuenta, aunque aún no se sabe oficialmente, seguramente también lo será en precio, pudiendo salir hasta unos 100€ más cara que su rival.

Fuente: Fudzilla

Finally!

Sennheiser HD 280 PRO

I was dying so hard to get a good headphones for past couple of months, and finally arranged for one by myself.

Just got it yesterday (1st Dec)! And, it’s so freaking awesome! The low and high frequency response in the neodynamic speaker of the headphones, with 64 Ω Impedance, the new dynamics of sound appears to be unveiled.

Tested some of my work to see how its dynamics actually are, and found my Inevitable Descent, A Strange Feeling and Not In Love (not released yet) to be a few among the best; while To Moksha and Captured to be moderately good.

And now I realised I need to work more on a few of the tracks I’ve already released.

See you soon, with a new dynamic music!

~ Ronak R. / RokZRooM

Continuando con el tema de Elias, ahora es mi turno de proponer unas alternativas de regalos para la temporada de Navidad.

Comenzamos con Xbox 360, una grandiosa consola con juegos magnificos como Halo 3 y Gears of War.
Pues para los que estan indecisos en comprar esta consola o no, aqui les dejo este paquete Exclusivo de las tiendas Sam´s Club.

REGALOS:
1:Consola Xbox 360-paquete que incluye.:
-Consola Xbox Premium 20GB HDD
-Xbox Live Platinum
-2 Juegos (Project Gotham Racing 4 (Carreras Rated E) y Kingdom UnderFire Circle Of Doom (RPG Rated M)
-2 Controles Inalambricos
-1 Kit Carga y Juega
-1 Control Multimedia

2: Gears Of War 2 (Rated M): La edicion de coleccion…xD (no puede faltar en la lista)
3:Mirrors Edge (Rated T) (acabo de probar la DEMO, un poco de dificultad en los controles, pero altamente recomendable)
4: NFS Undercover (Un buen titulo sin duda, las cinematicas son fabulosas)
5: Far Cry 2 (De los juegos mas recientes, una genial ambientacion en las condiciones geograficas de Africa, este FPS no puedes dejarlo pasar)

Ahora sigamos con los juegos de regalo para la consola de Sony, me refiero a la PS3.

1: Assassins Creed (el titulo es del año pasado, pero sin duda alguna de los mejores juegos)
2: PES 2009 (un juego con un nivel de realismo absolutamente fabuloso)
3: Call Of Duty 5: World At War (regresando a la SGM, este te pondra en duda si el CoD 4 es mejor o no)

Ahora los titulos para PC:

1:World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (para los fans de los MMO, este titulo de la saga, promete pasar buenos ratos explorando el mundo del Warcraft)

2: GTA IV ( no podemos olvidar los momentos de gloria para Rockstar con titulos como GTA San Andreas o GTA Vice City, en esta ocasion nos sorprenden con el lanzamiento de GTA IV para PC, un titulo altamente recomendado)

3: Tarjeta Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 ( la mas nueva de su gama de alto desempeño, sin pensarlo correras los juegos mas nuevos)

Aqui esta mi lista de juegos y accesorios para esta temporada, espero sea de su agrado y les sirva como guia para sus compras navideñas.

Por este medio quiero reiterar mis feliciaciones a Elias por el logro de las 500 mil visitas a la pagina. Enhorabuena por Elias y el Staff que día a día nos informan de las noticias/lanzamientos mas nuevos para este mundo gamer.

Un saludo a nuestros lectores.

Miembro de la Redacción: bakmaX – maX

18) A Coca-Cola era originalmente verde, e a Islândia é o país com o maior consumo per capita do mundo.

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26) A força necessária para dar três espirros consecutivos, queima exatamente o mesmo numero de calorias que um orgasmo.

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28) A guerra mais curta da história foi entre Zanzibar e Inglaterra em 1896. O zanzibar rendeu-se ao fim de 38 minutos.

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82) Certas rãs podem ser congeladas e depois descongeladas e continuar vivas.

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100) Em média, uma criança de 4 anos faz 437 perguntas por dia.

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131) Nenhum pedaço de papel pode ser dobrado ao meio mais de 7 vezes.

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Veja as 280 completas.