Honduras gets it Again - 5.7 this time

5.7 magnitude, offshore Honduras. Sunday, June 07, 2009 at 11:13:16 PM at epicenter

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — A 5.7-magnitude earthquake has shaken Honduras but there are no reports of injuries or damage.

The United States Geological Survey says the quake struck at 11:13 pm yesterday and was centered 15 miles (24 kilometres) northwest of the Caribbean coastal town of La Ceiba.

Honduras is still recovering from a 7.3-magnitude earthquake May 28 near La Ceiba which was also felt in Belize, Guatemala and mexico and killed seven people, injured 40 others, and caused US$100 million in damage.

Another Earthquake!

Ok guys so I know I'm not crazy. Last night (technically early this morning) at minutes to 1am, i woke up to a slight rocking of my bed. I am a very very light sleeper and woke up thinking "shit, another earthquake". It was very minimal and then I went back to bed. When i woke up today I had a meeting with my sister and mom and mentioned to them both that we had another earthquake and they both told me that we did not, that I must have been dreaming.

Anyway, I decided to check the USGS Earthquake Website, which record every earthquake, and it turns out I was right.
This one was only a 5.0 and was not as close as the 7.1 which struck last week.

Below is the Prelimenary Earthquake Report

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude	5.0
Date-Time	Tuesday, June 02, 2009 at 12:43:42 AM local time at epicenter
Location	15.51N 86.41W
Depth	10.0 kilometers
Region	HONDURAS
Distances	45 km (30 miles) SE of La Ceiba, Honduras 85 km (55 miles) NNW of Juticalpa, Honduras 180 km (110 miles) NNE of TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras 1305 km (810 miles) SSW of Miami, Florida
Location Uncertainty	Error estimate: horizontal +/- 6.3 km; depth fixed by location program
Parameters	Nst=123, Nph=123, Dmin=184.5 km, Rmss=1.25 sec, Erho=6.3 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=101.2 degrees
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

AIR FRANCE flight 447

An airplane seat, a fuel slick and pieces of white debris scattered over three miles of open ocean marked the site in the mid-Atlantic Tuesday where Air France Flight 447 plunged to its doom, Brazil's defense minister said.

Brazilian military pilots spotted the wreckage, sad reminders bobbing on waves, in the ocean 400 miles northeast of these islands off Brazil's coast. The plane carrying 228 people vanished Sunday about four hours into its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

"I can confirm that the five kilometers of debris are those of the Air France plane," Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters at a hushed press conference in Rio. He said no bodies had been found and there was no sign of life.

The effort to recover the debris and locate the all-important black box recorders, which emit signals for only 30 days, is expected to be exceedingly challenging.

"We are in a race against the clock in extremely difficult weather conditions and in a zone where depths reach up to 7,000 meters (22,966 feet)," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told lawmakers in parliament Tuesday .

Brazilian military pilots first spotted the floating debris early Tuesday in two areas about 35 miles (60 kilometers) apart, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral. The area is not far off the flight path of Flight 447.

The cause of the crash will not be known until the black boxes are recovered — which could take days or weeks. But weather and aviation experts are focusing on the possibility of a collision with a brutal storm that sent winds of 100 mph straight into the airliner's path.

Rescuers were still scanning a vast sweep of ocean. If no survivors are found, it would be the world's worst civil aviation disaster since the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines jetliner in the New York City borough of Queens that killed 265 people.

Quake of 7.1 magnitude strikes off Honduras

A powerful earthquake of 7.1 magnitude struck northeast of Roatan in Honduras early on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake that hit 39 miles northeast of Roatan, Islas de la Bahia, had a shallow depth of 6.2 miles. It struck at latitude 16.783 and longitude 86.166, USGS said.

A tsunami watch was in effect for Honduras and Belize, Guatemala, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. “There is a possibility of a local tsunami that could affect coasts located usually no more than 100 kilometers from the earthquake epicenter,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on its Web site.

There are at least five confirmed deaths reported in Honduras and there is heavy damage to the Democracy Bridge in El Progresso. There are also, reports of major structural damage to buildings in San Pedro Sula.

In Belize, at least three homes have been destroyed and a water tower collapsed in Indepence Village down South. Roads are cracked and sink holes are appearing all over Belize and it's outlaying islands.

There are now reports coming in from Roatan of major structural damage to many structures and three unconfirmed reports of deaths.

The quake was originally reported to have a 7.4 magnitude.

UPDATE - MAY 29th, 2009

Two more earthquakes have occurred in Honduras as of this morning. One inland south of the port town La Ceiba another west of Utila island in the Caribbean Sea. The quakes were a magnitude of 4.8 and 4.6 respectively.

The major earthquake from the day before has now been upgraded to a 7.3 magnitude earthquake.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this..

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY? Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them?

CONGRATULATIONS!

R.I.P. Baby Gegg - the Cancer has taken her life!

These pics were taken about an hour before my Baby went off to doggie heaven. My mother took pics of us, I'm so grateful for this. If you have been following my blog you might know that Baby has been suffering with mast cell tumors, which were malignant and at stage 3 of 4. After two operations and removing the tumors they only seemed to become more aggressive and spread. I had looked into an alternative medicine which some say cures cancer in Humans, a product called Xango, a juice made from the mangostein fruit, but maybe it doesn't really work or maybe it was just too late.Baby had stopped eating entirely and was basically living on the Xango which i was feeding her with a syringe orally. She refused to even have that as of Tuesday night, May 5th. Ironically because of her condition, she couldn't walk, eat or use the rest-room, my family suggested that I put her out of her misery and the vets came over that same day. I was far too emotional to make that decision and could not go through with it. They told me that i needed to take her into consideration because the quality of her life had completely diminished, they said they thought I was keeping her with me because it hurt too much to let her go. The vets told me that she would probably let me know what she wanted to do, that same evening she refused the xango, to my distress. On Wed morning she started vomiting her insides, masses of yellow bile and black bloody looking chunks, my poor little girl just faded away in front of my eyes.

I find that many people don't understand my torture of the situation and love for animals. Baby Gegg was my oldest and lived a beautiful decade of doggie years. Nine years ago I adopted her from the ASPCA in Houston, Texas, where she lived with me and me alone. Baby was my only companion for years and I spent every second with her, walking, driving around, training. She became very human like to me and was the funniest lil girl ever. My memories of her are simply beautiful. When ever I was sad she knew and made it better. She always related to my feeling and always knew just what to do to make mommy feel better. She was also a very obedient and good girl, she never used the bathroom in the house, when she wanted to go out she used to do the cutest little growl and dance. It was the cutest thing ever. She also never needed a leash and was the smartest little girl. I was very blessed to have had her in my life. The sadness has been overwhelming but i know I need to pull myself back together for the sake of my 6 other beautiful dogs. I feel that when Baby was ill I neglected the rest of the pack and know that I need to just let her go and hold on to my precious memories. God bless you my Baby Girl. R.I.P.

The Mexican government has closed schools, museums, and libraries in an effort to curb the outbreak of the “swine flu.”

The World Health Organization says the virus has killed dozens of people there, but it’s not declaring a pandemic yet.

Mexico shut down schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters across its overcrowded capital Friday in hopes of containing a swine flu outbreak that authorities say killed at least 20 people — and perhaps dozens more. World health authorities worried openly that the strange new virus could become a global epidemic.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said tests show some of the Mexico victims died from the same new strain of swine flu that sickened eight people in Texas and California. Of the 14 samples tested from Mexico, seven were matches, said the CDC's acting director Dr. Richard Besser.

Mexico put the confirmed toll at 20 dead, but 40 other fatalities were being probed, and at least 943 nationwide were sick from the suspected flu, the health department said.

Scientists said the virus combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a way researchers have not seen before.

“We are very, very concerned,” World Health Organization spokesman Thomas Abraham said.

“We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human,” he said. “It’s all hands on deck at the moment.”

President Felipe Calderon cancelled a trip and met with his Cabinet to coordinate Mexico’s response. The government planned to administer its remaining 500,000 vaccines from the flu season to health workers, the highest risk group, although it is not known how effective they are on swine flu. It said it also has enough oseltamivir, the generic name of Tamiflu, to treat 1 million people, but the medicine will be strictly controlled and handed out only by doctors.

The CDC says Tamiflu and Relenza do seem effective against the new strain. Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, said the company is prepared to immediately deploy a stockpile of the drug if requested. Both drugs must be taken early, within a few days of the onset of symptoms, to be most effective.

Authorities urged people to avoid hospitals unless they had a medical emergency, since hospitals are centers of infection.

They also said Mexicans should refrain from customary greetings such as shaking hands or kissing cheeks, and authorities at Mexico City’s international airport were questioning passengers to try to prevent anybody with possible influenza from boarding airplanes and spreading the disease.

But the CDC said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing.

“We certainly have 60 deaths that we can’t be sure are from the same virus, but it is probable,” said Health Secretary Jose Cordova. He called it a “new, different strain ... that originally came from pigs.”

Epidemiologists are particularly concerned because the only people killed so far were normally less-vulnerable young people and adults. It’s possible that more vulnerable populations — infants and the aged — had been vaccinated against other strains, and that those vaccines may be providing some protection.

All eight U.S. patients recovered from symptoms that were like those of the regular flu, mostly involving fever, cough and sore throat, though some of them also experienced vomiting and diarrhea.

Scientists have long been concerned that a new flu virus could launch a pandemic, a worldwide spread of a killer disease. A new virus could evolve when different flu viruses infect a pig, a person or a bird, mingling their genetic material. The resulting hybrid could spread quickly because people would have no natural defenses against it.

I NEED to finish this painting!!!

Painting, often times the only thing that can actually take me to my place of zen, to my happy place, and away from the utter chaos that exists in everyday life.

Something that of late I have not been able to do, circumstance out of my control caused me to leave my studio - hence why I have not been able to freely paint as I used to. Painting is much like therapy, for someone with my levels of anxiety and creative mind, when the desire to paint comes up its a thirst that must be quenched, otherwise it might drive my artist mind to the brink of insanity.

For now I will gather my paints and brushes and set up a "in the mean-time" studio space that I will clear away at the end of my session and TRY to finish this one that i have been working on. She (the painting that is) is untitled to date, but if you are a follower of my work and collections, she is clearly from my BODY DISMORPHIC collection. So for now, I paint.

Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Belize

Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Belize
posted (April 14, 2009 - from the Channel 7 Belize News Archives)

Andrew Zimmern is known for eating the most bizarre things...all kinds of insects, all kinds and forms of animal reproductive organs, basically anything that moves, he’ll eat. If you’ve seen his show on the Travel Channel, you’ll know what we’re talking about but if you haven’t, you’ll want to watch it next season because Zimmern is shooting a show in Belize. Keith Swift got a preview.

Keith Swift Reporting,
He’s eaten Volga – a kind of dried fish in St. Petersburg Russia, nibbled on cow tongue in Russia, and eaten a fried pattie made out of the flesh from a brown bear - and he did all that in just one episode of his show - Bizarre Foods.

But when we met the Travel Channel star behind the scenes last week in the lush jungle of Arenal in western Belize he wasn’t eating anything exotic. In fact he wasn’t eating at all, he was creating …………….art.

Andrew Zimmern, Travel Channel
“I took a tour of the art park. I love art, so I was really interested in coming here. It is a great story that installations are left to allow nature to sort of surround the pieces here and morph and change the pieces and allows people to experience art in a different sort of gallery if you will and then I joined the students who have been working on this project for a year. So we spent the last hour or so finishing it and installing my monitor that I personalized and the little kid who is watching it sort of stunned.”

Zimmer took us inside the filming the first episode of his new show – “Bizarre World” at the Poustinia Land Art Park in Arenal.

Andrew Zimmern,
“This is our first show in the Bizarre World series. So it is a really a momentous occasion for us and we’re just thrilled to be ale to kick it off in Belize.

Bizarre World allows me to cover stories that aren’t about food. The show will be about half food and allows me to do things like this, art installation stories which is certainly unusual. It is a provocative idea. It is something we believe belongs in this show about Belize but I am not eating anything.”

But he still plans to sample bizarre foods in Belize.

Andrew Zimmern,
“I will be eating some stuff in Bizarre. We are eating some jungle rat, I am doing some Creole hot pot drop cookery, some traditional kind of stuff, and along the way I am finding anything from stinky fruits to termite nests that I like to snack on because I am kind of addicted to the taste from spending a lot of time in the outback of Australia.”

Keith Swift,
Has there been anything you’ve refused to eat?

Andrew Zimmern,
“The only thing that I’ve said no to was tap water in India.”

Keith Swift,
Why is that?

Andrew Zimmern,
“Because that is a three day trip to the hospital.”

Zimmern filmed the episode along with an 8 member crew. He says there is a reason why he chose Belize.

Andrew Zimmern,
“There are is more than just ancient Mayan cultures and beaches here. Now we are exploring both of those because we think there are stories interesting for folks who will never make it here but we also want to talk about the Creole population, we also want to talk about the indigenous food, we also want to take our cameras into the art park here. We want to connect people in the rest of the world, it shows in 70 countries, with the citizens of this country and show them really what makes Belize tick.”

Brent Toombs, Oxa Productions
“We will go to ATM for a day there, then we spend some time in Xunantunich. After Xunantunich we go over to San Pedro to spend a day there doing some stuff on the water and then some bizarre food type stuff at Rojo Lounge up in North Ambergris Caye and then we go down to Toledo in San Pedro Colombia Village doing kind of a Mayan feast with a family there and then we wrap up in Gales Point. We’re going to do a traditional Sambai with the people in Gales Point.”

Andrew Zimmern,
“I’ve been here for about a day now and it is a place I’ve always wanted to come for the last ten or fifteen years, very badly, and sadly I do too much travelling for work so I’m glad that I am finally here.”

No air date has been set for the show. Zimmern left the country over the Easter.

My dog has Cancer :(

BABY GEGG UPDATE -
It has been 3 months since Baby Gegg's second surgery, the pics in the below cut is now almost completely healed, after three months of nursing her and packing the cut opening with sulpher so as to dry it out. But sad to say that the tumors have come back in full force and are now popping out all over her body. I has sent the tumor abroad for testing and the results came back with full blown cancer and they say her life expectancy is not high. I just came in from being with her, rubbing her tummy and playing with her, she is such a happy girl. It's hard to imaging that my ten year old baby girl who still seem so full of life has cancer and tumors that are covering her body. I don't know what to do, what to give her, how to cure her. The vet says there is nothing more i can do bc she can not go under again bc of her age, so i wont be able to remove the new tumors, and they also say that the tumors will continue to grow and come back. I'm devastated :(
---------------------

My baby girl, my oldest doggie, Baby gegg, was diagnosed with cancer this January, they found a tumor in her and had to go in to operate. The first operation was back in October, 2008 it went well, they sliced open her leg and cut the tumor out, when they restitched they put those disposable inside stitches as well gave her a very clean sew up on the outside of the cut. The second surgery was in January of this year.
A few months ago we noticed that the lump grew right back and the vet suggested we get her in for surgery immediately, which we did. Here is what the new, bigger cut looked like. They sliced my poor baby girl open again, this time making a HUGE incision, where they removed a very large amount of her insides and sewed her back together. When i went to see her at the vet I started balling my eyes out as she was shaking and her tongue was sticking wayyyy out, it was horrific. I also noticed that the cut was no where neat as the first time. I took a few pics of this terrible cut, and hoped that it would have a successful heal, taking all the necessary precautions and healing procedures. My poor baby even had to wear that martini looking thing around her head so that she wouldn't lick it.
After a while the cut looked like this, really disgusting I know. To me this thing looks disgusting and not right. It looks horrific, doesn't it??? And it only keeps getting worse. I called my vet freaking out (because we all know i can be a bit dramatic at times, especially when it comes ot my kids) and she assured me that this shit is normal... NORMAL?!?!
DOES THIS LOOK NORMAL??????????????????????? I certainly do not think that this is a normal curing process, is this really ok for a cut to heal like this. I put my hand an inch over the would and can feel the heat coming out of it, I think it is infected and am very worried because my Baby Gegg (the dogs name) is already 10 years old, and this is her second surgery in 6 months...