See the discussion page for instructions on adding schools to this list and for an alphabetically arranged listing of schools.Thursday, September 15, 2005

Enrollment dates for many schools have passed, and will be indicated next to the school’s entry under the by-state list. Update will take place in the next few days.Tuesday, September 6, 2005

Due to the damage by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding, a number of colleges and universities in the New Orleans metropolitan area will not be able to hold classes for the fall 2005 semester. It is estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 students have been displaced. [1]. In response, institutions across the United States and Canada are offering late registration for displaced students so that their academic progress is not unduly delayed. Some are offering free or reduced admission to displaced students. At some universities, especially state universities, this offer is limited to residents of the area.

Friday, April 23, 2010

The oil rig Deepwater Horizon sank yesterday after an explosion Tuesday night that left eleven people missing.

According to an officer from the US Coast Guard, the rig sank sometime in the morning. The rig had caught fire after an explosion of unknown origin occurred two days ago. 115 of the 126 workers on board the time of the explosion have been rescued after evacuating in lifeboats, either by the Coast Guard or from other ships in the area.

The remaining eleven have not been located, although Coast Guard officials have expressed optimism that they are still alive.

The environmental impacts of the explosion and subsequent sinking of the rig are unclear. While up to 13,000 gallons of crude oil per hour has been released from the rig, until now, the effects have been considered minimal, as it had been burned off in the fire. That does have the potential to change, though, according to David Rainey, vice president of the lessor of the rig, BP. The rig, built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries was owned and operated by Transocean.

The rig was located roughly 50 miles southeast of the coast of Louisiana, and was under lease to BP since 2007. It was completing the construction of a new oil well, and was constructing a layer of cement in the well to reinforce it. This is considered dangerous, as it has the potential to produce an uncontrolled release of case, called a blowout. While the cause of the explosion has yet to be determined, a blowout is considered a possibility.

One survivor of the explosion, who declined to give his name, told the The New York Times that he was lying in bed when the explosion happened. “It caught me by surprise. I’ve been in offshore 25 years, and I’ve never seen anything like that,” he recalled.

Stanley Murray, the father of another survivor named Chad, an electrician, said: “My son had just walked off the drill floor.” However, Murray said that a neighbor did not make it in time, adding that his son told him that the missing eleven workers could not have made it out alive. “The eleven that’s [sic] missing, they won’t find them,” Murray said.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hundreds of thousands of air travelers had their travel plans disrupted in Europe by volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

Tens of thousands of air travelers were stranded when all flights into and out of the United Kingdom were grounded, as it became one of the first nations to be affected. The grounding was even more extensive than that following the September 11 attacks of 2001 when only trans-Atlantic flights were canceled.

Eurocontrol released a statement saying “…most air traffic in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden is suspended.”

The grounding is because the volcanic ash drawn into the jet stream is of a particle size which allows it to remain aloft in the atmosphere. Ingestion of this foreign matter, because of its distribution, would lead to flame outs in all aircraft engines. The composition of the ash also means that it would first melt into glass if it were to enter the engine of an aircraft before solidifying again as it cooled. This could lead to damage to the compressors and fan blades, which would make it impossible to restart the engines, even if the aircraft were to exit the cloud.

The current contingency is informed by the experience of British Airways Flight 9, which on June 24, 1982 suffered just such complete engine flame outs when it flew through the plume of Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. In that case, the flight crew after many efforts was able to restart the engines, though one failed shortly after, and the aircraft landed without casualties.

The UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has stated that “restrictions will remain in place in UK controlled airspace until 1300 (UK time) tomorrow, Friday 16 April, at the earliest,” and that “We will review further Met Office information and at 0230 (UK time) tomorrow we will advise the arrangements that will be in place through to 1800 (UK time) tomorrow.” The NATS statement concluded “…the situation cannot be said to be improving”.

In addition to Northern Europe, the ash is drifting south; Berlin and Hamburg airports in Germany are closed, and airports in the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France are described as now being closed or closing. Some flights from Spain and Portugal, together with upwards of 4,000 flights across Northern Europe, have been affected, and the knock-on effect of aircraft and crews out of position could disrupt air travel worldwide for up to 72 hours.

One affected group are British musicians booked to play at this weekend’s Coachella Festival in California. Amongst those stranded are Frightened Rabbit, Gary Numan, The Cribs and Bad Lieutenant.

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Friday, June 3, 2022

Scientists at the University of Western Australia published a study Wednesday suggesting that a seagrass off the coast of Western Australia is the world’s largest plant. The Posidonia australis is thought to have begun to clone itself 4,500 years ago, and covers about 200 square kilometres (77 square miles). It is located in Shark Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Western Australia. Shark Bay was submerged relatively recently, within the past 8,500 years.

The scientists discovered the plant was a single organism after taking 18,000 separate genetic markers to examine the seagrass to find samples to use in restoration projects. However, they discovered the same plant had cloned itself many times instead. Dr Martin Breed, an ecologist at Flinders University, said “We thought ‘what the hell is going on here?’… We were completely stumped.” Jane Edgeloe, one of the co-authors of the research, said the DNA of the samples was compared and it was discovered from this that the seagrass meadow was a single plant.

The plant is around three times the size of Manhattan, and measures at least 180 kilometres (112 miles) in length. As well as being the world’s largest known plant, it is the world’s largest known clone. The seagrass greatly surpasses the 43-hectare stand of quaking Aspen trees in Utah, United States, previously thought to be the world’s largest plant. The seagrass grows a maximum of 35 centimetres per year, with its large size helping scientists calculate its age.

Dr. Elizabeth Sinclair, another co-author of the study, said the plant’s survival was helped by it holding onto all the chromosomes from both its parents. This gave it genetic diversity, which is unusual among plants that produce asexually. The plant does not sexually reproduce; however, subtle variations in its DNA may help explain its longevity.

Associate Professor Kathryn McMahon, of Edith Cowan University, was not involved in the study but is an expert on seagrass. She said seagrass tends to live for between 2,000 and 100,000 years, meaning the plant’s age of about 4,500 years fits into the normal age range of seagrass. McMahon also said she was confident in the method used by the researchers, and that the finding it was a single plant was “amazing”.

Despite the plant’s vast size, in the past ten years, almost a tenth of it has been destroyed by cyclones and rising ocean temperatures, which NBC News noted had been attributed to climate change. The bay has relatively high salinity and its temperatures vary from as cold as 15 °C (59 °F) to as hot as 30 °C (86 °F).

Sunday, March 20, 2011

A house fire in Bristol, England has caused the deaths of two brothers, identified as Charlie, aged five, and seven-year-old Mackenzie. Emergency services were called to the scene in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The bodies were discovered by firemen, at the scene in the suburb of Bradley Stoke around 0630 UTC. Police and ambulance services were also in attendance. Prior to their arrival, three other children and two adults escaped from the building in Merryweather Close through windows.

Speaking on behalf of Avon Fire and Rescue Service, manager William Roberts explained: “When crews arrived, the fire was fully developed and engulfing the first floor and roof space. Sadly, when crews entered the building they found the children. They were both upstairs, one in back bedroom, one in front. It is a sad day for the Bradley Stoke community and Avon fire. The ceiling has fallen in on itself and on top of our evidence. This is probably the worst fire I’ve seen in my 32 years.”

According to Roberts, smoke alarms were in the building, however the damage was “so extensive” that it is uncertain as to whether or not they were functioning correctly. “A full investigation has been launched by the police and fire investigators. No formal identification has yet taken place,” Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s Detective Sergeant Simon Chubb stated.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

During Hurricane Camille in 1969, a 72-foot tugboat named the East Point washed ashore on Gulfport’s West Beach. Lucille Moody, a beachfront property owner renamed the boat the S.S. Hurricane Camille and built a gift shop behind it, after moving it on specially built railroad tracks. The boat and gift shop became a popular attraction for tourists visiting the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

But on August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina came ashore pushing a 20-plus foot storm surge leaving mostly everything on the beachfront destroyed. Only a few things were standing including the Biloxi Lighthouse, the Friendship Oak, and the S.S. Hurricane Camille. Lucille Moody decided not to rebuild the gift shop, so there the S.S. Camille stands, a rusted hulk on a beachfront that is quickly rebuilding.

People want it gone, suggesting it is an “eyesore”, but others suggest this historic object be preserved, especially after the loss of historic sites including Grass Lawn and Tullis-Toledo Manor. They suggest a coat of paint and some repairs could make the boat much more appealing.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

United States President Barack Obama gave his official farewell address on Tuesday night from McCormick Place in Chicago, reflecting on personal and national accomplishments. This is expected to be his last major speech before officially handing the reins to president-elect Donald Trump on January 20.

Obama’s speech was wide-ranging. He thanked his family and the nation, spoke of the need for unity, noted the country’s accomplishments and need for improvement in areas like education and civil rights, and spoke about the need for pride in U.S. accomplishments, citing milestones of U.S. history and of his presidency specifically. “It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima; Iraq and Afghanistan – and why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs as well.”

The president also addressed his country’s troubled history with race and racism, an issue many black citizens feel he has avoided. Despite this, Chauncy Devega of Salon described the president as “a role model of calm, cool reflective black masculinity: a man utterly at home in his own skin.” Obama described the concept of a post-racial U.S. “unrealistic” and particularly cited the need for reform in education and the criminal justice system and greater acceptance of scientific evidence, particularly evidence supporting action to counteract climate change.

However, publications including The Washington Post and Salon have given particular focus to another aspect of the president’s address: the country’s increasing political tensions and controversies involving access to news and information, both accurate and inaccurate. “We become so secure and our bubbles,” said Obama, “that we start accepting only information, whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there,” calling this trend “a third threat to our democracy.”

The Washington Post characterized Obama’s comment, “If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hard-working white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades will be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves,” as a “not-so-subtle jab” at the campaign tactics of President-elect Donald Trump. The Telegraph describes Obama’s warnings about the need to protect democracy as “a thinly veiled slight to the divisive rhetoric of Donald Trump’s election campaign, which included attacks on Muslims, the disabled, women and immigrants.” The president went on to call on the public to “reject the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties that make us one America. We weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive […] We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt and when we sit back and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them. It falls to each of us to be those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy.”

Despite this, when the mention of Donald Trump brought boos from the crowd, Obama reiterated the importance of the long history of peaceful transfers of power from one president to the next: “No no no no no. […] I committed to President-elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me.” However, this was not unaccompanied by a call to action. Near the end of the speech, he insisted citizens dissatisfied with elected officials should “lace up your shoes, grab a clipboard, get some signatures and run for office yourself.”

Overall, the departing president’s speech focused on accomplishment, echoing the “Yes we can” slogan from his 2008 campaign: “If I have told you eight years ago, that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history. If I had told you, that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, take out the mastermind of 9/11[…] If I had told you that we would win a marriage equality and secure the right to health insurance for another twenty million of our fellow citizens. If I had told you all that, you might have said our sights were set a little too high. But that’s what we did.”

But when the crowd began shouting “Four more years! Four more years!” Obama, with a small laugh, answered, “I can’t do that.”