Storm Watchers: "A Wild Ride for Friday"

Cresting rivers and melting snow-pack is causing disastrous flooding conditions for much of the midwest, particularly Fargo, ND.  Residents have sandbags piled high; however, it doesn't seem high enough.  Frozen bags make it difficult to stack closely together, leaking more water into homes and roads, flooding thousands of properties.  

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Meanwhile, other parts of the country, such as Denver, CO, are getting hammered with blizzard-like conditions.  The Southeast is being threatened with severe storms, with numerous tornado and thunderstorm watches in effect.  West Coast residents should count their blessings, as the majority of the storms are hitting every other corner of the country.  

Leave your comments! What is the weather like where YOU are?

A Virtual Town Hall Meeting?

President Obama takes advantage of the electronic age we now live in by holding a town hall meeting via the internet.  Questions are still welcomed from the public; however the only difference is that the questions are being posed by visitors to the White House website, and then vetted by other visitors for their relevance and importance.

Administration officials claim that the questions of most importance/most popular will rise to the top of the pile and will be posed to the President at 11 a.m. EDT.  

It's a nugget! Should 911 really be notified?

Florida's "McNut" makes headlines after calling 911 three times after McDonald's ran out of McNuggets.  Reports show that her "emergency" resulted from the fast-food restaurant's denial of giving her a refund for having no nuggets.  The manager tried to convince Latreasa Goodman to order something else on the menu; however, Goodman had other plans.  Her McNugget meltdown has sparked nationwide attention, which has resulted in deep embarrassment.  (rightfully so) Leave your comments about the McNut!

View MSNBC's video below to hear the 911 calls...

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NASA's "Kepler" in search for new earths...

This upcoming Friday marks the start of NASA's latest mission, with the launch of one of the world's most advanced telescopes into space.  The telescope named "Kepler" has astronomers hoping for a new perspective of the way we look at our universe.  There is confidence that the new device will discover other earth-sized planets, and possibly those orbiting in a region that is conducive to supporting life.  

"Kepler will push back the boundaries of the unknown in our patch of the Milky Way galaxy, and its discoveries may fundamentally alter humanity's view of itself," said Jon Morse, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The $600 million mission is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, March 6th.  The delta 2 booster being used to propel the telescope has gone under extra scrutiny, after causing problems with the previous launch of a separate probe.  After a delay of one day, this friday's launch is expected to lift off without a problem.  

Johannes Kepler, the 17th century German scientist who pioneered the fields of optics and planetary motion, was the inspiration for this mission.  His discoveries are now being used in hopes of answering a profound and fundamental question about our place in the universe: Do other Earth-like planets exist?

Nearly 95 million pixels will be used in capturing the subtle shifts in light that characterize an extrasolar planet orbiting its star, operating along with a series of light detectors.

NASA claims that their mission and interest is finding planets similar to earth that might harbor life.  Kepler will be pointing its 0.95-meter diameter telescope and array of 42 charge-coupled devices (light-sensitive microchips also found in standard digital cameras) at a pre-selected target group of 100,000 stars.

Kepler will also focus on any changes in the light of each star that result from a planet transiting – or moving in front of – its parent star as seen from the perspective of Earth. These fluctuations can tell scientists how big the planet is, as well as how far away its orbit is from its

parent star.

As much as scientists hope to find thousands of other earth-like planets, there is also a great deal to be said if Kepler returns with no data regarding any new planets, which would mean our earth is very unique.