Drag racer dies in wreck at Eddyville track
Tuesday - August 24th, 2010 at 1:29 am
Drag racer dies in wreck at Eddyville track
by Pat Curtis on August 23, 2010
in Fires/Accidents/Disasters
A veteran drag racer from Texas was killed in a crash at a competition in southeast Iowa this weekend. The crash happened Saturday night during the World Fuel Altered Nationals at the Eddyville Raceway Park. The man who died in the crash, 49-year-old Tim Hay, was the defending champion of the competition.
According to the track’s website, Hay had reached the final round of competition when his dragster – nicknamed “High Voltage Hayride” – spun out of control. Hay had been involved in auto racing since 1977. The Burleson, Texas resident is survived by his wife Candy, two sons, a daughter and two granddaughters.
Whale puts on show, neat video
Tuesday - August 24th, 2010 at 1:00 am
Whale puts on good show near Hamilton, Island Australia.
Thank you Mediapolis school for costing me more
Monday - August 23rd, 2010 at 8:05 pm
I got my tax statement for this year. My taxes went up $154 this year. So I looked at the main reason, and it turns out the Mediapolis Community School District has raised my taxes by over 13% accounting for $109 of the $154, bringing my total taxes due the school $800 a year. With that amount of money paid I should not have to shell out extra to register my kids every year. That amounts to almost $100 a month to the school during school operations or for the required 180 days of school I am paying $4.45 a day worth of taxes, plus $3.40 for lunch, and add in .67¢ a day for registration costs and my total amount per day paid to the school is $8.52 or roughly $188 a month during school, but someone who rents and has two kids in school only pays $49 a month. In my opinion thast is a big discrepency, why should I ,just because Iown a home have to pay $140 more a month to the school? Instead of raising the property tax, why don’t we do away with property tax and raise the sales tax, so all pay equally, and have the equal percentage of the sales tax go to the schools? Why should property owners be punished for owning their own place? 
MM
NEW COMPOUND HAS ‘SUPERHERO-LIKE’ POWERS
Monday - August 23rd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a cliche! No, it’s a new type of oxide compound!
It sounds like boring stuff on the surface. But when researchers talk about the capabilities of this new oxide compound, the material sounds like it comes straight out of a comic book.
Researchers at Cornell University found that when you physically stretch europium titanate nanometers (a tiny amount of the element europium and mineral titanite), it takes on “super hero-like properties” that could revolutionize electronics.
When researchers stretched thin films of europium titanate across another type of oxide, they became highly electrically polarized and exhibited a permanent magnetic field. These two qualities almost never appear in a single material in nature. When they do, they are pretty weak by comparison.
The new compound that researchers developed is 1,000 times more powerful in terms of electrical polarity and permanent magnetism than anything that has ever been seen before.
This new approach could prove to be a key step toward the development of next-generation memory storage and superb magnetic field sensors, just two applications researchers have long dreamed about. And they didn’t even have to call the Justice League to get it.
Unruly crowd attacks police on last night of Iowa State Fair
Monday - August 23rd, 2010 at 8:39 am
They ought to press as many charges as they can against these people. A message needs to be sent that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. ^MM
Des Moines police officers were attacked as they waded into a combative crowd outside the gates of the Iowa State Fair Sunday night.
Officers sprayed chemical deterrents and deployed a stun gun while trying to gain control. Two teen girls were taken into custody for questioning following the incident.
Police administrators announced last week they were stepping up security outside the gates because of a series of attacks and fights on Aug. 14. Similar events unfolded on Sunday, the last night of the fair.
Police Sgt. Richard Schuett and reserve Officer Lynn Hubbs both complained of head, neck and back pain after being punched from behind while trying to secure arrests.
Fights broke out near East 30th Street and Grand Avenue shortly after 10:30 p.m. When officers arrived, several large crowds of people were leaving the fairgrounds. Sgt. Schuett was attempting to make an arrest when someone hit him in the back of the head with a closed fist.
A police report says: “Officer Schuett was on the ground fighting with his suspect, and several other females began to attack him.” Another officer grabbed one of the attackers and tried to make an arrest, but she spun away.
Officer Timothy Coughennower eventually took that teenager to the ground, but she continued to fight. Police said other citizens jumped into the fight and other officers rushed in to help out. Chemical sprays were deployed.
Coughennower used a stun gun to gain control of the teenager he was fighting, and she immediately went to the ground.
Medics were called to treat the officers and attend to suspects who had chemicals in their eyes. Medics also removed the stun gun barbs from a suspect.
A 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl were taken to the police station for questioning and later were released to their relatives. Charges of interference with official acts and assault on a police officer are likely to be filed in Polk County Juvenile Court against one of the teens, police said. The other faces a possible charge of interference.
via Unruly crowd attacks police on last night of Iowa State Fair | Des Moines Register Staff Blogs.
Screw You Microsoft!
Monday - August 23rd, 2010 at 8:18 am
Maybe it is just me, or maybe I rolled out of bed on the wrong side, but I thought I would go to Microsoft.com and see if I could check out the development on the new Internet Explorer 9 and what I read pissed me off. Here is what it said “Internet Explorer Platform Preview requires Windows Vista or Windows 7.” It brought to me the realization that the freaking tech industry, especially Microsoft, expect all of us to be able to drop hundreds of dollars every time they come out with a new operating system, not to mention hours of our precious time time to upgrade. Yet the government is pushing for nation wide broadband, but what good is it going to do if no one can afford to spend the money to keep up with the latest operating systems?
It costs $120 to $200 for Windows 7, not to mention that for the ordinary user, you can’t upgrade to Windows 7 from XP, and the fact that your printer, scanner, and other hardware might not work and a lot of your older software that you spent hundreds of dollars on over the past years won’t work either. But according to Microsoft standards we are supposed to just go out and buy new. BULLSHIT! I have a computer for me, my wife, and two for the kids all running Windows XP. The newest computer is 2003. So for me to get current I would have to spend $480, just for the software not to mention how many hundreds more to make sure everything else that we use software and hardware wise is up to date.
Then they always pull out the safety and security issue in order to try to scare people into upgrading. Then there are the freaking schools, who use the latest Microsoft Office and somehow just seem to expect every kid to have the same at home. Upgrading and updating MS Office is a real expensive pain in the ass. Microsoft Office is $120, then if you use Outlook, you have to jump up one level to $200, and if you need Access or Publisher, be prepared to jump up another level to $350. And you want to know a secret, that will only last around 2 years then Microsoft will expect you to pay more money again for Office 2012. So if you need the top office, basically you are paying over $150 a year forever to keep up with office. What a crock. Plus mind you that is per computer, so like me if you have 4 computers that equates to $480 for the OS plus an additional $480 to $1,400 for Office, so if I split the difference of Office it comes to $480 + $700 for a total of (with tax) over $1,200 every two years or so that Microsoft expects me to pay to just keep up. $1,200 / 730 (365 days X 2 years) = $1.64 a day that Microsoft expects me to pay. Hell no wonder Bill gates has Billions of dollars.
So screw you Microsoft!
P.S. Apple is not any better either, and you still have to use MS Office on Apple too! We area all just slaves to the corporate world!
MLManley 
Toddler walks two blocks to reach medical help for her father
Monday - August 23rd, 2010 at 3:10 am
(CNN) — Alesaundra Tafoya\’s parents have been teaching their daughter about safety in their Northern California community, pointing out such safe havens as fire stations if she ever finds herself in trouble.They weren\’t, however, expecting 3-year-old Alesaundra to call upon those lessons when one of them needed help — but that\’s exactly what she did Friday when her father collapsed in their Manteca, California, home.Frank Tafoya told CNN affiliate KOVR that he \
Continued >> Toddler walks two blocks to reach medical help for her father – CNN.com.
Woman dies in flooded underpass in downtown Springfield, IL
Sunday - August 22nd, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Talk about your freak accidents happening. How weird is this one? MM
A 23-year-old woman drowned Friday night after the car she was riding in became trapped in a flooded underpass and she slipped into an uncovered manhole and could not be extricated.
The woman and a man were in a car that became stuck in the viaduct at Third Street and Capitol Avenue late Friday.
Both got out to try to push the car out of the viaduct, but the woman slipped into the manhole, the cover of which apparently had been pushed off because the storm sewer had overflowed earlier. The woman went underwater and became stuck.
Because water was flowing back into the manhole at that point, the man was unable to pull the woman out by himself. A Springfield police officer arrived, and the two were able to extricate the woman.
By then, however, police Lt. Jim Henry said, she had been underwater about four minutes, and the officer’s attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful. She died at the scene, Henry said.
No information was available on the identity of the woman.
Continued at >> Woman dies in flooded underpass in downtown Springfield – Springfield, IL – The State Journal-Register.
Macon Fork and Cork Festival
Sunday - August 22nd, 2010 at 11:39 pm
MACON, MO. — Next week you’ll have the chance to enjoy food, fun, and even a run in the City of Maples. The third annual Macon Fork and Cork Festival is scheduled for Saturday beginning at 8 am. There will be a 5 K run and a 2 mile walk at Long Branch State Park. Runners will receive a t-shirt with their registration fee and a chance to win medals and trophies for a winning performance. After the race, festivities will continue downtown with an art festival, farmer’s market and shop the block among other events.
“They have music all day long. And it’s local, some local, some not. So I think there’s something there for everybody, there’s always something for the kids. It’s just a fun day to come hangout and eat and drink and have fun,” said the run coordinator Connie Kuhman.
For more information you can visit our sister station in Kirksville, Missouri’s website HeartlandConnection.com
See Video >> Macon Fork and Cork Festival : News : KHQA.
