Scientists pinpoint quake-prone region in Mississippi Valley Wed Jun 22, 3:12 PM ET PARIS (AFP) -

Scientists believe they have lifted the veil on an earthquake-prone region in the southern United States that lies more than 2,000 kilometres (1,650 miles) from the nearest boundary in the Earth's plates, the major source of quakes. The zone lies around New Madrid, a town in eastern Missouri that lies on Mississippi River.

A monster quake, since estimated to measure 7.4-8.0 on the Richter scale, ripped across the town on December 16, 1811, causing surface waves across the ground locally and inflicting damage as far as Washington. Aftershocks continued there for much of the following year, and there were major quakes in 1843 and 1895 measuring 6.3 and 6.7 respectively, making it the most seismic region in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. But these events happened when the region was sparsely populated -- New Madrid had a population of just 400, all of whom were reportedly killed.

Today, the region is home to millions of people, which thus makes it vital to try to estimate when the next big quake could hit. ...

KEN'S COMMENT BEGINS HERE: Anyways.... this is my two cents on the whole deal. It took these guys that long to figure this out???? Shit, the lower Mississippi Valley, from St Louis southward, lies over a large rift basin from this half billion years ago. There are a shitload of earthquakes in this area---just too weak or too deep to cause a ruckus, for the most part. I learned this as an undergrad. And this is something I don't say often---thank you, U of R! And by the way, can anybody tell me how to fix this posting shit? Pasting all this stuff together makes it look like I'm the idiot-savant version of Faulkner! (More idiot though)

Just giving an update to Alice's whereabouts: 

Alice climbed out of the flying aluminum hot dog brought to us by the letters A (for Airbus) and D (for Delta Airlines) about 4am our time this morning after a long harrowing 18 hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg. I talked to her again smomewhere around 7am, when I was a little more coherent, and basically, she was exhausted from the flight, recovering from the claustrophobic effects, and noted how impoverished the area truly is. I guess you have money there if your last name is DeBeers. I won't go into depth on her trip so far---I'll let her take care of that, as she only can---she'll be trying to post while she's there. Just take care of yourself; I'll be talking to you soon.

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The mystery of unpopped popcorn has been solved.  And on your very own campus!  Go figure! 

I was checking out US News & World report (which is still being sent to my house, at no charge to me), and I saw that Purdue is ranked on the list of top graduate schools for education.  They even have a full page ad in the magazine, which is surprising, since they're tied at #49 with Lehigh of all places.  What does that tell you?

I blog it to the East

I blog it to the West

I blog it to the girl that I love best!

I'm blogging!

. I never had any reason then to try and connect outside of my circle of friends---I just didn't care... I was eating, drinking, smoking, out of shape, spending too much time and money at the bar. I was in an awful, awful rut by the time I had left Upstate NY. Some of my closest friends from college didn't even know that I was in such dire straits, since I had this happy-go-lucky, damn the torpedoes attitude---always looking for the next diversion. I never mentioned it to them until we were down in the Outer Banks, on the eve of my move to Allentown. They asked why, and all I knew was that I needed to shake up my life... I had spent too much time waiting for some sort of divine intervention that never was going to happen... as one of my favorite bands had sung long ago, "time hustles those who wait to die." I made a lot of changes in the short time i was in PA... I learned alot about who I was, and could be (even though I still have a ways to go in this aspect). I made changes, decided to quit the unhealthy things in my life, and get back to living. The biggest, and most important, change I've done in my life is to finally let someone in---that being Alice. I had so many scars from previous relationships, that I had become comfortable about not letting anybody close...until now. She's a wonderful girl, someone that has always put this smile on my face. I sit and wonder how I could have found someone like her... that we had spent a year and a half, no more than several city blocks apart, but never meeting before, until that fateful night, after many long online conversations, when the stars (no pun intended) aligned, and we spent the night watching "Monster" at the theater, and a couple beers after. Sometimes I wonder why she agreed to a hockey game, after listening to my past over those beers... I must have sounded like some freak... But without keeping all of you in suspense (or boredom) over this, I'll just wrap up... This past year has been the best of my life, and I have to thank her for letting me in as well---I'm hoping that this next year will be even better, especially if I get into grad school!!!! See y'all later on the flip side...