Selasa, 08 Februari 2011

Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states

After big snow and ice events in the Southeast, Plains, and Midwest this week, 49 out of the 50 states currently have snow on the ground – yes, even Hawaii, where snow falls in Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea all winter.

The only state that has avoided this icy blast is Florida. Does that make you want to go on a nice, warm vacation to the Sunshine State? You're not alone.

Put another way, that means snow is present in 69.4 percent of the lower 48, which is more than double than December. This is extremely unusual, though it's hard to put a date on when this last happened because records aren't kept on this kind of event.

The National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center combines ground reports and images from satellites in space to determine how much of the country is covered in snow. That's what you see in the image above. The images tell how deep and widespread the snow is, and that's important not only for images like this one, but also for computer weather models, which use the data to generate accurate forecasts. Such forecasts were very useful in predicting this week's winter storms.

Earlier this week, two storms began to churn: one in the northern Plains and Midwest, and one in Texas. The southern winter storm took a track across the Gulf Coast, pulling warm, moist air over an extreme arctic blast that set up over the eastern half of the United States late last week. This provided fuel for the storm to carve a path of snow, sleet, and freezing rain from Texas to the Carolinas.

Here in Atlanta, we're still coated in snow and ice and probably will be for the next couple of days. No one in the Southeast escaped the wrath except, of course, Florida.

But it's not over. Now that the southern-track storm has moved into the Atlantic and is moving north, the other Midwest storm is going to merge with it, creating a Nor'easter event that could dump up to two feet of snow in the Northeast. Winter storm warnings and advisories have been posted for the event - 32 states have winter storm advisories issued, by the way.

Here's how the snow forecast breaks down for some major cities:

Washington DC: 2-4 inches
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 4-6 inches
New York, N.Y.: 6-12 inches
Hartford, Connecticut: 15-20 inches
Boston, Massachusetts: 12-16 inches

The snow and cold started early this winter and has been extreme for most of the country. Usually the Southeast avoids the blast, but not in 2011. We're all feeling a little "snowed in" this winter.

Florida lawmaker wants teachers to grade parents

If an elementary school teacher graded you on your involvement in your child's education, what kind of a grade would you get?

Should your kid's first-grade teacher be grading you in the first place? If Florida state Rep. Kelli Stargel's bill becomes law, public school teachers will be required to grade the parents of students in kindergarten through the third grade.

The parents' grades of "satisfactory," "unsatisfactory" or "needs improvement" would be added to their children's report card.

Stargel, a Republican who sits on several education legislative committees, says that parental involvement is key to educating children for years to come.

As the mother of five, Stargel says, she understands the importance of her role in educating her children.

"I think a lot of parents understand that is something that is critical," she said. "On the other hand, you have some parents that don't realize they are not providing the needs."

Florida lawmakers have spent years overhauling the public school system to make schools and their teachers accountable for student achievements.

Teachers grading parents?
Should schools weigh all students?

Many parents and teachers have not welcomed the changes. In the late 1990s, the state began the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, in which a school would be graded based on the overall score of its students.

From the beginning, proponents of the FCAT wanted schools held accountable for their students' grades through standardized testing.

Critics contend that teachers are forced to spend too much time preparing students for the test instead of actually teaching.

Teachers, do you want to grade parents? Share your thoughts in the CNN Teachers' Lounge.

Last year, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a bill that tied a teacher's pay to his or her students' achievement. Another version of the bill is expected to pass this year under new Gov. Rick Scott.

"We have student accountability, we have teacher accountability, and we have administration accountability," Stargel said. "This was the missing link, which was, look at the parent and making sure the parents are held accountable."

Veita Stephens, an academic intervention facilitator for Polk County Public Schools, called the proposal a "unique notion."

"The thought has never entered my mind to grade a parent," she said.

Teachers agree that parental involvement is crucial to a child's education. But some teachers say that grading the parents is not the answer.

Sharon Francis, who teaches first grade in the small central Florida city of Winter Haven, is not sure that grading parents will work.

"I think those parents that are not going to show up or not do anything," said Francis, who teaches students from primarily poor homes, "it's not going to faze them, whether you put 'unsatisfactory.' "

The grading system is based on three criteria that Stargel wrote in the legislation:

• A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.

• A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.

• There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher.

"Those three things are key to a quality education," Stargel said.

Steve Perry, a CNN education contributor and founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, says he couldn't disagree more.

Perry insists that a good education is based on what a child learns in the classroom and not what a parent might know that could help their child.

"There is nothing in any teacher's training that would put them in a position to be able to effectively judge the parenting of one their student's parents," Perry argued. "If getting a bad grade was the impetus for people doing things right, then I would have an entire school of kids getting A's."

Kindergarten teacher Theresa Hill of Snively Elementary School in Winter Haven disagrees.

"This is the real world. You don't always get a superior rating if you're not doing a superior job. That's life," she said. "We grade our children based on their performance. Why should the parents be any different?"

Some parents said they laughed out loud after hearing about the proposed legislation.

On the sidelines of his son's soccer practice in Winter Park, J.C. Adams said he thought it was an interesting proposal.

"It could have some validity. We could try it and see how that might work out for everyone," he said.

We grade our children based on their performance. Why should the parents be any different?
--Theresa Hill, kindergarten teacher

Kim Granger, who has two daughters -- one in high school and the other a mother of three young children -- welcomed the idea of being graded on her parental skills.

"I wouldn't mind that at all. I would get a good grade," she said. "If you're more involved with your children when they're littler, when they grow older, they're more stable, more willing to sit down and do the work."

Stargel acknowledges that not everyone agrees with her legislation, which she said is still under revision. The bill was not intended to tell parents how to raise their kids, she says.

"We want to make sure parents are involved in the education of their children," Stargel said.

Francis Monteiro agrees that parents like him appreciate feedback from their children's teachers, but he says requiring teachers to grade parents is not the answer.

"Bottom line: Everyone wants the best for their kids," he said.

Egypt protests: US call to Hosni Mubarak's government

he US has called on the Egyptian government to immediately lift the country's emergency laws, which have been in place for 30 years.

Vice-President Joe Biden made the call during a telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart Omar Suleiman.

He also said the police should immediately stop arresting and beating journalists and activists.

Tuesday saw one of the biggest anti-government rallies in Cairo since the protests began on 25 January.

It came despite the government's announcement of its plans for a peaceful transfer of power.

Start Quote

The real test of the revolution's success or failure is whether it changes Egypt permanently”

End Quote Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor

President Hosni Mubarak has said he will stay in office until elections in September, when he plans to step down.

Mr Biden told Mr Suleiman that the transition to a more broadly based government should produce "immediate, irreversible" progress.

The US vice-president has been phoning his Egyptian opposite number on an almost daily basis and his latest call is the toughest yet, the BBC's North America editor, Mark Mardell, reports.

Mr Biden said the interior ministry should be restrained immediately and there should be a clear policy of no reprisals.

Separately, President Barack Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Mr Suleiman's remarks about Egypt not being ready for democracy were "particularly unhelpful".

The focus now seems not to be on President Mubarak and his future but on what the White House calls "concrete reforms", our North America editor says.

So far the administration's repeated suggestions over the last week have been met largely by grudging commitments from the Egyptian authorities and little action, he adds.

'Huge support'

As the protests entered their third week, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square for the latest protest. Initial attempts by the army to check the identity cards of those joining the demonstration were quickly abandoned because of the sheer weight of numbers.

The BBC's Jim Muir, in Cairo, says the message to the authorities is simple - there is huge support from all walks of Egyptian life for the protests, and the government's concessions are not enough.

Wael Ghonim, a Google executive, hugs the mother of Khaled Said, a young businessman who died last June at the hands of undercover police, at Cairo's Tahrir Square. Photo: 8 February 2011 Wael Ghonim (left) is credited with setting up a Facebook page that helped galvanise protesters

Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who was detained by state security forces for 12 days, often blindfolded, was feted by the crowds as he entered Tahrir Square. He is credited with setting up the page on the Facebook social network that helped galvanise protesters.

"We will not abandon our demand and that is the departure of the regime," Mr Ghonim told protesters in the square, to cheers and applause.

Large crowds also demonstrated in the second city, Alexandria, and other Egyptian towns and cities.

In his response to the protest movement that has presented by far the most serious challenge to his 30-year rule, President Mubarak has set up a committee to propose constitutional changes, and another is being formed to carry the changes out.

Among the key expected changes are a relaxation of presidential eligibility rules, and the setting of a limit for presidential terms.

Vice-President Suleiman said a third committee, expected to begin its work in the next few days, would investigate clashes between pro and anti-Mubarak groups last week and refer its findings to the prosecutor-general.

He also said President Mubarak had issued directives to stop repressive measures against the opposition.

Many protesters have said they are sceptical about any transition managed by the government.

"We don't trust them any more," Ahmed, one young Egyptian queuing to get into Tahrir Square, told the BBC. "How can Suleiman guarantee there'll be no more violence around the election after all the attacks we've seen on young people?"

Death toll

The unrest over the last two weeks has seen fierce clashes with police, and pitched battles between protesters and Mubarak supporters.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) researchers say they have confirmed the deaths of 297 people since 28 January, based on a count from seven hospitals in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. No comprehensive death toll has been given by the Egyptian government.

Some economic activity has resumed, but authorities have delayed reopening the stock exchange until Sunday. On Friday it was estimated that the paralysis resulting from the unrest had been costing the economy an average of $310m (£193m) a day.

The number of those on Tahrir Square has been swelling each day and dropping back overnight.

Meanwhile, leaked US diplomatic cables carried on the Wikileaks website have revealed that Mr Suleiman was named as Israel's preferred candidate to succeed President Mubarak after discussions with American officials in 2008.

As Egypt's intelligence chief, he is said to have spoken daily to the Israeli government via a secret "hotline" on issues surrounding the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Planet Mirip Bumi Mungkin Sangat Umum

Seberapa umum planet mirip Bumi di luar tata surya? Seth Shostak, astronom program Search for Extraterrestrial Inteligence (SETI) mengatakan bahwa jumlahnya mungkin umum.

"Dunia mirip Bumi mungkin sama umumnya dengan jumlah semut yang ditemui saat berpiknik," katanya seperti dilansir situs astronomi Space.com, Rabu (9/2/2011). Tanggapannya muncul seiring dengan temuan 54 kandidat planet yang berpotensi mendukung kehidupan, hasil pengamatan dengan teleskop ruang angkasa Kepler.

Shostak mengatakan, sebanyak 54 kandidat planet memang masih sedikit untuk menyakini adanya kehidupan. Namun, ia percaya masih terdapat banyak kandidat planet lagi. "Yang Anda butuhkan bukan hanya 50, lebih banyak lagi. Tapi, fakta menunjukkan bahwa terdapat jauh lebih banyak kandidat planet yang ada," paparnya.

Meski planet mirip Bumi mungkin sangat umum, namun hal itu tak menjamin adanya kehidupan di planet tersebut. Jika pun ada, mungkin juga bukan kehidupan cerdas. "Mungkin juga banyak terdapat kehidupan, tetapi sangat sedikit makhluk pintar yang bisa berkomunikasi lewat radio transmitter," kata Shostak.

Yang jelas, temuan Kepler telah membantu astronom untuk memantapkan persamaan Drake. Persamaan itu digunakan SETI untuk memprediksikan kemungkinan komunikasi dengan alien. Persamaan Drake mendasarkan pada 7 parameter, di antaranya fraksi bintang yang memiliki planet dan fraksi planet yang memiliki kemungkinan untuk mendukung kehidupan.

Shostak berpendapat, temuan Kepler dapat secara langsung memengaruhi perhitungan dengan persamaan tersebut. Akibatnya, prediksi pun bisa berubah.