Meteor Over Alberta

Possible meteor lights up the skies in northern Alberta
Huge flash also seen in Sask. and Manitoba

By TAMAS VIRAG, Sun Media (Thu, November 20, 2008)



EDMONTON — The bright flash of light across the Alberta sky earlier this evening wasn’t a bird and it wasn’t a plane.

It was a meteor seen from across this province and even parts of Manitoba.

“I did hear a boom ... I lifted my eyes and this bright meteor was falling,” said Marcellin Gobeil, who lives on a farm about three kilometres west of Beaumont.

“It came down pretty fast, but it lasted a long time, a lot longer than I’ve ever seen it,” he said, adding the massive and awe-inspiring spectacle painted the dark sky at around 5:30 p.m. in bright shades of orange, green and blue. “When it hit the ground it was still lit.”

One Edmontonian even called the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre – the organization in Ontario that tracks airplane crashes throughout the country – shortly before the heavenly apparition was confirmed as a meteor.

“Somebody called here, she was driving downtown Edmonton and she saw a huge bright light turn orange,” said Capt. Pierre Bolduc with the centre, adding RCMP have gotten hundreds of calls.

Nikki Booth, spokesman for Edmonton Fire Rescue, said they also got calls about the flash of light, but did not respond to it, as they believed the meteor landed south of the city.

Gobeil, however, says the rocky space invader most likely slammed into the ground somewhere in Manitoba, which is just fine by him, after the moment of fear the apparition caused him.

“I was kind of scared, actually. I didn’t know what the heck it was and, to me, it was going to hit the town of umont and that’s where my kids are,” Gobeil said. “It looked so close, and when I didn’t see any explosion or anything I said, ‘Good, it’s gotta be way past that.’ ”

“The question now that remains is whether anything made it to the ground,” said Chris Herd, a science professor at the U of A. “This thing was so bright it indicates that it’s a pretty good-sized piece of space rock.”

Herd is hoping that reports from the public will lead to finding the rock – if any of it survived the fiery fall – so he and others at the university can analyze it.

Anyone wishing to report their sighting is encouraged to do so at miac.uqac.ca.

Source: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2008/11/20/7482001.html

Most Beautiful Bottom In The World

I didn't know they were holding competitions for the most beautiful bottom in the world. I could have joined! haha :P kidding. :)

Melanie Nunes Fronckowiak (R) from Brazil, and Saiba Bombote (L) from France pose after they won the female and male final of the "most beautiful bottom in the world" competition in Paris last November 12, 2008. 45 finalists from 26 different countries took part in the competition. Winners received a modelling contract and 15,000 euros ($18,769) prize money. Hmm... looks like I have a lot of work to do in the gym. lol

More photos:

The Winners

Contestants

Source: REUTERS/Vincent Kessler (FRANCE)

Los Angeles, California Wildfire

Sources say the blaze started Friday night in northern Los Angeles and has burned more than 2,600 acres. The fire was driven by high winds, causing it to spread. Thousands of residents fled in the dark. I can only imagine how scary this is.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County.

These are photos taken by Dan Steinberg. As you can see, flames burn on both sides of Interstate 5, the main freeway linking Los Angeles to the north. Click here to view the slideshow.

Here's an excerpt from the Yahoo News Article:

"You could see absolutely nothing," said Jackie Burns, 77, who, along with her husband, Len, fled their mobile home at 3 a.m. as the fire raged through the neighborhood. "It was like looking into a black hole. It looked like the end of the world to me."

Scary. I honestly haven't seen a wildfire as huge as this one, but I guess I haven't seen a single wildfire in my life... yet. hehe

Wikipedia cited, many states in the United States, Canadian provinces and many countries around the world use Fire lookouts as a means of early detection of forest fires. Did they see this coming? Daniel Berlant, a spokesman at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said, "the dry conditions make it perfect for more fires".

A wildfire is a natural condition - a natural part of ecosystems in many, but not all forest types. It is sometimes essential for forest regeneration, but when lives are at risk, then we have to do something to prevent huge, destructive ones from happening. Like maybe, find ways to improve the wildland fire suppression techniques? And it's always safer to live far away from wildfire prone areas, in the first place. Still, any kind of fire can happen anywhere, right? Even in big cities... But there are places with high risk, and there are places with low risk - you take your pick. If you're destined to die by fire, would you like to be burned by a forest fire, or fire caused by faulty electrical lines, or fire started by a candle in a lowly shack in the mountains, etc... hehe Sorry, just kidding. :)

165 homes were burned on Saturday. It's a sad and serious matter. I hope they'll find a nice, cozy home before Christmas.

Read the full article at Yahoo News.

Christmas Poll Widget

I've added a cute new widget today! YAY! Thanks to MicroPoll.com. I was so excited with the outcome, I placed it on my page even if it's still November. =) Christmas is already in the air in the Philippines. The weather's starting to get colder and colder (at least where I live; as for the other cities, I'm not sure), and some people are actually starting to shop for gifts. Yup, as early as today! :) Coca-Cola has started to air their Christmas Ad on TV... I'm listening to Christmas songs aired over the radio at this very moment... Lots of Christmas Decors and Christmas trees are on display everywhere... Well, you get the picture. :)

Anyway, back to the widget... It's a poll widget, really, but after a few minor tweaks, now it reminds me of Superpoke in Facebook, except simpler. It's amazing to know it's customizable. You can set the color for the Title text, the Title background, Poll Border, Poll Background, Question and Answers Text, Chart/Bar graph, etc. You may even display an image for each answer option, thereby, adding appeal to your polls. Not bad, if you want to, let's say, get your reader's opinion on what dress to wear on Saturday, or whom should you go out with... Add a picture of every girl/guy you like in each of the choices, and find out what others think by gathering votes! Hehe Just my imagination... :) Read more about the poll's features here. Oh, and it's free! You do have an option to upgrade to MicroPoll Advantage and pay $15/Month (or more) to get advanced features, but I guess the free account's already cool by itself.

The only slightly-negative thing that I've found so far is, if a user chooses the Multiple-answer type of Poll (just like the one on my page). When someone votes, the counter counts the number of answers chosen, not the number of voters. So, if for example, I'm the first voter in my poll, and I'll choose "Smile at Wen" and "List as Naughty", the results would show there were 2 votes, not 1 voter. So it would give the site owner the impression that two of his/her readers have voted, but in reality, there was only 1 voter who clicked on two answers.

The poll provided by Blogger counts the number of voters, not the answers chosen. But this is just a minor thing, I guess... Unless you're doing a research, then you need accurate data for Statistics. Important thing is, the poll serves it's purpose, and that's to count the number of votes on each answer. My poll's not for the count, by the way. It's just for fun and interaction. :) I hope you'll click on it, it's not adsense... =) And voters remain anonymous (your identities are all safe with Santa, don't worry), so you can throw snowballs at me all you want, and I won't get back at you.. =P hehe This widget will be up and running til Christmas.

If you want to create your own poll, here's the link: http://www.micropoll.com/. Have fun and be imaginative! =)


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Thank You, Subscribers!

Wow, I can't help but notice the increase in the number of SCRIBBLE & SCRIBBLE Subscribers these past few days. From 0, to 6, to 10, to 13, to 19, and it did went down to 16 for a while, and now at 21! It's a new record! ^_^ It's not many, because I've seen sites with tens and hundreds of subscribers, but I consider myself lucky enough to have some anyways. :) I started this blog last October 15, and I am very grateful for the seriously kind-hearted people who noticed it. hehe It's barely 23 days old... I've seen blogs with only 1 or 2 subscribers, or none at all, and they've been in the blogosphere for a while. =( I always find myself signing up for email subscriptions to those sites, because I know how it feels to see a "0 readers" text on the tiny feedburner button. That's where it all starts, a perfect zero...

I would like to take this time to say THANKS to each and every one of you guys, for your support. My top blog friends, so far, are: xgenesis007, gerimox, and ronald. I appreciate your comments and visits guys. Thank you very much! You never fail to lighten up my day. I invite all my readers to go visit xgenesis' blog, gerimox's blog, and ronald's blog, too! They'll do the same for you, I can guarantee that. Raj, Bhavin, Zelmarqs and the rest of the visitors from BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, and all the other sites, THANK YOU! I hope you'll visit again soon! :)

And if anybody could tell me, please help me on this one... I'd like to know if there's any way for me to find out who the other subscribers are, e.g. email subscribers, and those who clicked on the RSS feed icons? Feedburner doesn't seem to supply me with the list of email addresses... or maybe I should look harder...? =) I'd like to return the favor somehow. I would subscribe to my subscribers' site content, too. (If I haven't yet) ;-)

I also have one concern... With the frequency of my posts, my emails might end up in your Spam folder. Please let me know if this is happening... So I can find a way to make the email delivery right. :)

Once again, thank you very much! :) My readers' count may go down, or go up from time to time... I'll understand that... But I sure hope it will steadily rise. hehe Thank you!!!

P.S. If you're new to this site, and would like to subscribe to my feeds, please do so. And please let me know, so I could do the same. Thanks!

Britney Spears and Chris Crocker

I was browsing through YouTube last night. I wanted to view Britney Spears' new Womanizer video. I went over the search results, and I watched the Director's Cut version. She really gained weight, didn't she? :) I noticed her thighs in some of the scenes, particularly when she was standing. Hehe But her body looked fit when she was naked and lying down. The song's catchy, by the way, and I guess she did it again this time. Way to go Britney! And oh, the guy in the video is so cute. =)

The reason I wrote about this is not entirely because of Britney's new music video, but also because of Chris Crocker, Britney's fan. Remember him? hehe Every person is entitled to his/her opinion, and it's a free country, so let him be... :D If you haven't seen his video - the video which possibly ranked No.1 in YouTube's most viewed videos in September 2007 (10,042,520 views as of today) - here it is:


Britney's Fan Crying

And I probably am very late with this... but I discovered the following video uploaded on September 13, 2007 by NatLamp (NationalLampoon.com), just this morning... hehe Am I the only person on earth who don't know about this? I don't really spend so much time on YouTube, so it's not surprising. :) This video was a response to Chris Crocker's video. I just have to share it! =D If you haven't seen this yet, enjoy! It's got 3,527,683 views so far... so maybe, about 6,514,837 people who viewed the Britney Fan Crying video didn't view this yet. hehe



LEAVE CHRIS CROCKER ALONE! Britney Spears Responds

On a serious note, we're all humans, and we must respect one another. :) I included these videos in my blog not to humiliate them further, or anything. Hehe They made their videos available in public anyways, so it was their choice. I am not a die-hard Britney fan, nor a Britney-hater, but I respect her as a person, living her own life trying to express her creativity through music. Believe it or not, I respect Chris' sentiments, too. I don't know him, and I haven't seen other videos of him. True, he might have done that for publicity, but it may also be a real outburst... Who knows, he might be a super emotional guy. We can't blame him for what he feels. NatLamp, on the other hand, appears to be making funny videos for a living, so that's their calling. :) hehe They want to make people laugh. We're humans. We act, we feel, we see, we observe, we reflect, we criticize, we understand, we ignore, we respect. It's all a choice, really. :)