US Air Force Helping the Philipines after the Hurricane

USAF Emergency Evac Flight C 17 Tacloban to Manila

Published December 4, 2013 | By John Vervoort

If you feel ‘cramped’ flying in coach on your next trip — remember this picture!

(Tacloban is the city in the Philippine Islands where over 5000 died when Typhoon Haiyan came ashore in early November)

This is onboard one of the US Air Force’s C-17 on one of the evacuation trips from Tacloban to Manila.

Well done, Air Force.  I am retired military and we can fly Space Available on US Military Airplanes. My wife and I often fly this aircraft. We came back from Spain last week on a C-17. It was not quite this crowded.

Our Photos at:

http://ruhu12.com

1. How Philippines typhoon aid helps USA: Column - USA Today

   www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/11/.../philippines...us.../3500637...‎

   Nov 14, 2013 - The United States immediately dispatched relief and troops to aid the ... The storm that ravaged the Philippinesthis weekend was off the charts,  ...

2. U.S. Typhoon Aid In The Philippines Underscores Countries ...

   www.huffingtonpost.com/.../us-typhoon-aid-philippines_n_4298054.ht...‎

   Nov 18, 2013 - By Manuel Mogato and Aubrey Belford MANILA/TACLOBAN, Philippines, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. military's response to the devastation ...

3. US military relief effort for Philippine typhoon winding down - Stripes ...

   www.stripes.com/us-military-relief-effort-for-philippine-typhoon-windin...‎

   Nov 25, 2013 - The U.S. military's assistance for survivors ofTyphoon Haiyan appears to be rapidly winding down as responsibility for relief efforts in a number ...

4. News for philippines hurricane us military

   

   Newsday
   1. Justin Bieber raises funds for Philippines' Typhoon Haiyan victims

      CBC.ca ‎- 21 hours ago

      Teen heartthrob Justin Bieber arrived Tuesday in thePhilippines, ... by the Philippine and U.S. militaryfrom typhoon-ravaged provinces of Leyte ...

5. US military footprint on Philippines could grow after typhoon Haiyan ...

   www.csmonitor.com/.../US-military-footprint-on-Philippines-could-grow...‎

   Nov 13, 2013 - The aftermath of typhoon Haiyan is showing Filipinos the benefits of a robust US military presence. That could help a US-Philippines military ...

6. US role in typhoon relief boosts new military deal with Manila - Reuters

   www.reuters.com/.../us-philippines-usa-typhoon-idUSBRE9AO08D2013...‎

   Nov 25, 2013 - MANILA (Reuters) - Emergency relief provided byU.S. troops in areas devastated by typhoon Haiyan in the centralPhilippines makes a strong ...

7. US Military to Aid Typhoon-devastated Philippines - United States ...

   www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=121094‎

   WASHINGTON, Nov. 10, 2013 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed U.S. Pacific Command yesterday to support U.S.government humanitarian relief ...

8. US Pledges More Aid To Philippines Typhoon Recovery - World - Time

   

   world.time.com/.../typhoon-haiyan-u-s-pledges-more-aid-to-phi...‎

   by Charlotte Alter - in 43 Google+ circles

   Nov 18, 2013 - Typhoon Haiyan survivors help carry USAID donated food after a U.S. military helicopter unloaded it in the destroyed town of Guiuan,  ...

Using Smart Phones to Find Parking Spaces

Anagog guides you to open parking spots

By Ben Coxworth

October 7, 2013

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Anagog monitors users' smartphones to determine when they've left a parking spot, so it can let other users know that the spot's available

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Yep, we've all been there – you leave your home in plenty of time to drive to an event, but end up being late because you spend such a long time looking for parking once you get there. Well, Israeli entrepreneur Yaron Aizenbud has created something that could make such parking-spot-searches considerably shorter. It's called Anagog, and it's a smartphone-based system that shows users where the open spots are, or even where spots are soon to be open. And unlike some other proposed systems, it doesn't require any hardware to be installed in the existing infrastructure.

To use the system to find a spot, users access the Anagog app as they approach their destination. This results in a street map being displayed on their screen, with the locations of spots recently or about-to-be vacated clearly indicated.

The system won't indicate where all of the open parking spots are, though – just the ones left by other Anagog users. The idea, needless to say, is that once enough people start using the system, it will still be far better than simply cruising around and hoping to just randomly come across a spot.

An Anagog screenshot from the company's home city of Tel Aviv

Click to read the rest of the story:  

http://www.gizmag.com/anagog-parking-spot-finder/29293/

Superstreet

From Wikipedia

At a superstreet, all traffic on the side road must turn right, where it can access a U-turn ramp. Traffic on the main road can turn left directly. The opposite applies for countries that drive on the left.

A superstreet, also known as a restricted crossing U-turn(RCUT) and a J-turn,is a type of road intersection that is a variation of the Michigan left. In this configuration, traffic on the minor road is not permitted to proceed straight across the major road or highway. Drivers wishing to turn left or go straight must turn right onto the major road, then, a short distance away, queue into a designated U-turn (or crossover) lane in the median. When traffic clears they complete the U-turn and then either go straight or make a right turn when they intersect the other half of the minor road.

This requires four traffic light-controlled intersections, and most traffic must pass through two of them, but each light has only two phases, greatly increasing average traffic flow; there is no need for numerous left-turn phases where most traffic is waiting for only a few cars to clear the intersection.

Click to read the full article in Wikapedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstreet

Minimum Wage Hours

How Many Minimum Wage Hours Does It Take To Afford A Two-Bedroom Apartment In Your State?

Workonomics

 Sara Critchfield

   

A special Upworthy series about work and the economy, made possible by the AFL-CIO. Read more, then check out more in Workonomics.

Ever wonder how people manage to get by on minimum wage? Oftentimes, they don't...

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Mice Parachute — To Kill Snakes

Two thousand mice dropped on Guam by parachute — to kill snakes

Eric Talmadge / AP file

A brown tree snake on Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam in February.

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

They floated down from the sky Sunday — 2,000 mice, wafting on tiny cardboard parachutes over Andersen Air Force Base in the U.S. territory of Guam.

But the rodent commandos didn't know they were on a mission: to help eradicate the brown tree snake, an invasive species that has caused millions of dollars in wildlife and commercial losses since it arrived a few decades ago.

That's because they were dead. And pumped full of painkillers.

The unlikely invasion was the fourth and biggest rodent air assault so far, part of an $8 million U.S. program approved in February to eradicate the snakes and save the exotic native birds that are their snack food.

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"Every time there is a technique that is tested and shows promise, we jump on that bandwagon and promote it and help out and facilitate its implementation," Tino Aguon, acting chief of the U.S. Agriculture Department's wildlife resources office for Guam, told NBC station KUAM of Hagatna.

It's not just birds the government is trying to protect. It's also money.

Andersen, like other large industrial complexes on the Western Pacific island, is regularly bedeviled by power failures caused when the snakes wriggle their way into electric substations — an average of 80 a year, costing as much as $4 million in annual repair costs and lost productivity, the Interior Department estimated in 2005.

The U.S. has tried lots of ways to eliminate the snakes, which it says likely arrived in an inadequately inspected cargo shipment sometime in the 1950s.

Snake traps, snake-sniffing dogs and snake-hunting inspectors have all helped control the population, but the snakes have proved especially hardy and now infest the entire island. Guam is home to an estimated 2 million of the reptiles, which in some areas reach a density of 13,000 per square mile — more concentrated than even in the Amazonian rainforests, the government says.

But brown tree snakes have an Achilles' heel: Tylenol.

For some reason, the snakes are almost uniquely sensitive to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the ubiquitous over-the-counter painkiller. If you can get a tree snake to eat just 80 milligrams, you can kill it. That's only about one-sixth of a standard pill — pigs, dogs and other similarly sized animals would have to eat about 500 of them to get into any trouble.

Brown tree snakes also love mice. It's easy to bait mice with acetaminophen, but how do you then deliver the mice to the snakes?

"The process is quite simple," Dan Vice, the Agriculture Department's assistant supervisory wildlife biologist for Guam, told KUAM. 

Helicopters make low-altitude flights over the base's forested areas, dropping their furry bundles on a timed sequence. Each mouse is laced with the deadly microdose of acetaminophen and strung up to two pieces of cardboard and green tissue paper.

"The cardboard is heavier than the tissue paper and opens up in an inverted horseshoe," Vice said. "It then floats down and ultimately hangs up in the forest canopy. Once it's hung in the forest canopy, snakes have an opportunity to consume the bait."

Wildlife workers do have a way to chart how well the mice work. In addition to the acetaminophen and the parachutes, some of the poison pests also come equipped with tiny data-transmitting radios.

Home From Spain

Beth and I made it home from Spain yesterday. Wonderful country.

Photos at

ruhu12.com

travelhullinger.blogspot.com