A1A South

BEIJING, May 17 (Xinhua) — The earthquake in southwest China has seriously affected agricultural production in Sichuan and other disaster-hit regions, said a senior official from the Ministry of Agriculture on Saturday.

The quake, which triggered landslides in the mountainous province, damaged 33,333 hectares of farmland, including more than10,000 hectares of wheat and rape and more than 20,000 hectares of vegetables, in the 13 worst-hit cities and counties, said Wei Chaoan, Vice Agriculture Minister.

As the disaster also destroyed irritation systems in some areas, up to 100,000 hectares of rice paddies might have to be used to grow alternative crops, he said.

“A large amount of farming facilities, including more than 20,000 farm machines, were damaged,” Wei said. He admitted the repair work would be “very difficult”.

As the country’s leading agricultural province, Sichuan provided 6 percent of the nation’s total grain output, including 5percent of the national total summer grains, 8 percent of the total oil crops and 5 percent of the total vegetable production, said Wei.

He said the 12.5 million head of livestock killed in the quake were mostly poultry. The poultry losses were a small fraction of the 1.5 billion birds that the province aimed to produce in 2008.

Wei said the quake had limited impact on farm production nationwide, adding he had “full confidence” in the steady national supply of grain and other major products and to keep the prices stable.

He said the ministry compensate for the agricultural losses by stepping up production in other areas and closely monitor farm produce supplies in the affected areas.

Zhang Yuxiang, an official in charge of the ministry’s market and economic division, said farm produce prices nationwide remain almost the same as before the quake.

The supply of vegetables was adequate as farmers nationwide had planted more after the severe winter weather in January, she said.

The death toll from the earthquake, measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale on Monday, rose to 28,881 nationwide as of 2 p.m. Saturday, while 198,347 people were injured, according to the Information Office of the State Council.

Source: Xinhuanet.com

I’m glad that Ministry of Agriculture feels that China can make up for the damaged/destroyed crops in other agricultural regions.

JACKSONVILLE, FL — A living legend on the First Coast has been living among us for more than 50 years, and we have to stress the word “living.”

Recently Slim Whitman had to remind his fans that he was still alive after rumors began to spread that he had died around the time of his 85th birthday.

“I had gotten calls from all over the country asking if I was dead, and I told them ‘If I could still sing, then I couldn’t be dead, and I could still sing’”, explains Whitman with a smile.

And, this wasn’t the first time rumors like this were started.
11 years ago, Jay Leno on the Tonight Show made a joke about Slim Whitman and Fats Domino and made reference to them both being dead.

Slim Whitman had to return a lot of phone calls back then too.

To help him set the record straight again, I decided to catch up with this amazing man to learn more about his life on the First Coast and his impressive career.

We met at the McDonald’s in Middleburg, where there are pictures of him and his son hanging in a special place of honor.

He brought with him old newspaper clippings, two of his gold albums, one platinum and a replica of his star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“My star is one of the first 18,” says Whitman.

But one of the most treasured items Whitman showed me was an article about his wife and how she helped his career get started.

“She was the woman behind the man,” says Whitman.

He goes on the explain, “Along in that time, if someone pointed a finger at me, I couldn’t talk. I would stutter. And for each song, she’d say ‘Here he is’.”

Whitmans’ wife Gerry would introduce him before he performed on his radio show in Tampa.

Eventually, Whitman was able to go on stage and perform without stuttering.

And, it was during one of those radio shows that Colonel Tom Parker heard Whitman.

Colonel Parker helped Slim Whitman sign his first record deal.

Later Col. Parker discovered Elvis; and Elvis used to open the shows for Slim.

Slim remembers the time he let Elvis borrow on of his trademark white rhinestone jackets on stage, ” And, he came back and said ‘How did I do?’ and I said you did good.

They thought I came back,” joked Slim.

Slim Whitman has been called a country crooner and “American’s Favorite Folk Singer.”

He has a vocal range of 3 octaves and is known for his yodeling.

“But, I had no idea that the yodeling, that I was doing then would turn into something that I could really show off without really showing off,” remembers Slim.

His fame reached record proportions in the United Kingdom, where he sold more albums than he Beatles, and held the number one spot on the record chart for 11 weeks.

A record that lasted for 36 years for his song “Rosemarie.”

And, in 1997, it was Slim Whitman’s voice that Tim Burton chose to knock the aliens out of the sky in the re-make of “Mars Attacks.”

Although, he’s traveled all over the world, Slim Whitman’s life is deeply rooted in Florida.

He was born Ottis Dew Whitman in 1923 in Tampa.

He met his wife Geradine “Gerry” Crist when he was just 15.

They married a few years later, and they’ve lived on her family’s farm in Middleburg for the past 53 years.

In June, Slim Whitman and his wife will have been married 67 years.

They have two children, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

He and his son Byron used to tour together.

He made 103 albums, and sold more than 70 million records world-wide.

He was in the navy and used to play baseball with the Plant City Berries, a Class C team in the Orange Belt League.

Before wrapping up my interview with Mr. Whitman, some fans
who had been waiting, finally were able to come forward and give him a big hug.

They talked for a while and remembered some of their favorite songs.

Slim Whitman looked at me and said…”See, the music still lives on today.”

And despite the rumors, so does Slim Whitman.

Source: First Coast News

An Everglades wildfire has burned through 18,691 acres of grassland and turned east toward populated areas, authorities said Friday night.

”Dade County and Broward County could be inundated with thick heavy smoke,” said David McCarty, a duty officer for the state Division of Forestry.

By Friday night, the fire was four miles south of the Chekika day use area, at Southwest 168th Street and 237 Avenue.

But winds out of the west began pushing flames — and smoke — toward homes and roads in Southwest Miami-Dade. Visibility on Krome Avenue, U.S. 41 and Florida’s Turnpike may worsen over the weekend.

Source: Miami Herald

DELTONA, Fla. — A Volusia County sheriff’s deputy is hospitalized in serious but stable condition after being bitten by an 8-foot-long alligator he was trying to subdue in a parking lot.

Authorities said Deputy Keith Baughman responded to a call late Thursday about an alligator roaming around the Deltona apartment complex. Witnesses said the deputy put a towel over the gator’s head, jumped onto its back and tried to grab its snout.

One witness says the alligator “went crazy,” throwing off Baughman and biting him on the leg.

“His pants ripped up and blood was gushing out and everything,” witness Carlos Martinez said. “He started limping away and the alligator was laughing at him. The dude then shot it twice in the head.”

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said a second officer, Deputy Jason Stickles, shot the alligator repeatedly.

“I said, ‘Don’t shoot it,’” witness Jasmin Harris said. “Just wait until the animal people come out. I don’t know why they shot it in the first place. They shouldn’t have jumped on it. That wasn’t their job.”

The alligator was hit but did not die and continued to roam the apartment complex.

A trapper eventually came out and killed the animal with a bang stick.

Baughman was reported to be in stable condition at a hospital with injuries to his thigh and knee.

Source: News4Jax

If you ain’t a good ol’ boy, leave the gator rasslin’ to professionals.

I am ashamed to admit that I had never heard of Irena Sendler, whose obituary appeared in this morning’s paper. Hers is an awesomely humbling story, even by the standards of her heroic generation.

A Polish Catholic, she spirited some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto, displaying casual and extraordinary courage. She kept a list of the children she had saved, hoping one day to reunite them with their parents – although, in the event, almost all lost their families in Treblinka. In 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo and tortured. Her legs and feet were broken, but she refused to give up her list. She was sentenced to death, but rescued, whereupon – almost unbelievably – she went back to work.

Here, though, is the sentence that leapt off the page at me: “Last year she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, eventually won by Al Gore.” Al Gore! I mean, nothing against the old lardbutt – it’s nice to see ex-politicians doing something they believe in rather than giving themselves over wholly to the getting of personal wealth – but making a film is not the same thing as donning a yellow star and smuggling babies past enemy soldiers.

Our generation, as Danny Kruger put it in the best tract of 2007, is moralistic rather than moral. We are better at holding opinions about what governments or multi-nationals should do than we are at doing the right thing by our neighbours. Having formed our opinions, we become self-righteous in a way that the Irena Sendlers of the world couldn’t understand.

“We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes”, she said towards the end of her life. “That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true – I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death.” There is a haunting sincerity to that statement. You can’t imagine Al Gore saying any such thing, can you?

Posted by Daniel Hannan on 13 May 2008 at 23:02

Source: The Telegraph

This was originally in The Telegraph and reposted at Watts Up With That where it came to my attention.

I do think that it is shameful that a real life hero was deliberately overlooked in favor of a charlatan. Unlike Mr. Hannan, I do not hope that Al Gore is hanging his head in shame. I do not expect him to be capable of feeling such an emotion. The persons who should be ashamed are the people that awarded him the Nobel prize which should have gone to Ms. Irena Sendler.

Cold More of a Problem than Wet
Compiled By Staff
May 14, 2008

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says we have a temperature problem that is going to be a bigger problem than the rain over the next two weeks.

Over half the corn crop has been planted but the delays from wet weather has pushed progress far behind normal. Rippey says dryer weather is coming but low temperatures will present problems.

“A very chilly weather pattern is already in place and except for just a day or two ahead of this cold front coming through this week it looks like we’re set in for the long haul of below normal temperatures,” Rippey says. “Fields that are extremely wet are going to be very slow to dry with occasional rain and low temperatures, and the problem is that fields that are now planted are going to be very slow to emerge and develop.”

Source: Southern Farmer

BISMARCK, N.D. n With extended dry conditions across the state and little significant rainfall in the forecast, Gov. John Hoeven today declared a statewide “early phase agricultural drought emergency.”

“We have the potential for continuing dry conditions that could cause real hardship to farmers and ranchers across the state,” Hoeven said. “We’ve had no appreciable precipitation in many areas of the state and this may pose a problem for crop production and for livestock water needs later on this summer.”

Source: Iowa Farmer Today

Too wet in one part of the grain belt and too dry in another.

ALBIA — Paul Belzer has seen farmers being busy this spring.

However, he hasn’t been busy planting or doing fieldwork this year in South Central Iowa.

Belzer says his family, who also runs Belzer Equipment here in Monroe County, has been busy doing work on tractors.

He says farmers have been coming in to get parts to fix a piece of equipment when they have the time or to avoid a breakdown during delayed planting.

However, Belzer is in the same situation as many other farmers in the area. He says they have not been able to get any fieldwork done this spring.

“We haven’t done anything,” he says.

Belzer says since the snow melt, it has rained every few days.

The soils in the area also are clay based that retain moisture, he notes.

That means the soils have never dried out to allow fieldwork and planting to be done.

Most corn planted in NW Iowa:

We are done planting our non-organic corn, but have not planted any organic corn yet. Most of the corn in our area went in last week. We had four really good planting days. There is no emergence yet, but we could see some if it stays warm. I have not heard of any beans being planted yet.

Source: Iowa Farmer Today

I believe I noted that I had spoken to an Iowa farmer recently and was astounded to hear that not only was the corn not yet planted, the only field he had managed to sow in oats was washed away the next day by another rainstorm. Per the Iowa State University Extension office “Nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s land surface (~23 million of 36 million acres) is annually dedicated to production of corn or soybean. “

Looks like feed prices will remain high over the next year.

POSTVILLE — Immigration officials raided the Agriprocessors Inc. meat processing plant in Postville on Monday, arresting as many as 300 people.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) entered the plant about 10 a.m. looking for evidence of identity theft, use of stolen Social Security numbers and for people who are in the country illegally, said Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman.

The raid was the largest such operation in Iowa history, said Matt M. Dummermuth, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. He said the raid came after months of planning. Agriprocessors is the world’s largest kosher meatpacking plant.

The detainees were taken to the National Cattle Congress (NCC) grounds in Waterloo, said Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman, where agents had set up a an “intake center.”

Male detainees were to be held there until at least May 15. Female detainees were to be housed in local jails.

An ICE spokeswoman said about 300 people were detained, but 40 were quickly released for “humanitarian reasons,” possibly so they could care for their children. Immigration proceedings are pending against those people, officials said.

Read the rest at Iowa Farmer Today

Looks like being massively overrun by illegal immigrants isn’t just a problem of the southern states anymore.

A report in Nature - an international weekly journal of science - has found common mutations of the H5N1 bird flu virus that have emerged in human influenza are resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

However, they are still “strongly inhibited” by an alternative drug Relenza.

Both drugs are commonly stockpiled but governments both in Australia and around the world have favoured the more convenient Tamiflu pill over the inhaled medicine Relenza.

Report co-author Alan Hay, from the UK’s National Institute for Medical Research, says Tamiflu is useless against the mutations.

“The mutations cause resistance to Tamiflu but not Relenza,” Dr Hay told ABC Radio.

“It’s quite clear that there is greater potential for Tamiflu resistant viruses to emerge than was previously thought.

“Relying on a single drug is somewhat foolhardy when more than one drug is available.”

Australia has stockpiled about 6.9 million courses of Tamiflu compared with just 1.8 million courses of Relenza, the ABC reports.

Dr Hay says one implication of the new research is that governments should stockpile greater courses of Relenza.

Although the H5N1 virus mainly affects birds, it has killed more than 200 people since 2003.

Scientists say it is the most likely source of the next deadly flu pandemic in humans as it may soon mutate into a form transmitted easily from person to person.

Source: The Australian

Very bad news to countries with huge stockpiles of Tamiflu to combat possible bird flu infection.