The Santa Monica Hippodrome (carousel) is a National Historic Landmark. It sits on the Santa Monica Pier, which was built in 1909. The La Monica Ballroom on the pier was once the largest ballroom in the US, and the source for many New Year's Eve national network broadcasts
A DDoS attack on DNS provider UltraDNS took down Amazon and other major sites Wednesday afternoon US Time Dec 23.
Amazon users on Twitter reported problems starting on the site at around 5pm PST (noon AEDT Thursday.) Reports note that the issue also affected Amazon web services including S3 and EC2. Walmart and Salesforce are also believed to have experienced issues.
UltraDNS owner Neustar confirmed the outage to CNet, saying that the DDoS attack commenced at 4:45pm and customer sites were either offline, or sluggish for approximately one hour.
Amazon’s Web Services Health Dashboard said that services had completely returned to normal as of 6:40pm PST.
Moving aggressively to fortify their rotation, the Yankees have acquired the right-hander Javier Vazquez from Atlanta Braves in exchange for outfielder Melky Cabrera, the left-handed reliever Mike Dunn and a prospect. The Yankees also received Boone Logan, a left-handed reliever, in the deal.
Vazquez will join C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte in a rotation that will be loaded with strikeout pitchers. Vazquez had 238 strikeouts last season, second to the Giants’ Tim Lincecum in the National League.
Vazquez was 15-10 with a 2.87 earned run average for Atlanta last season, and has been among the most durable starters in baseball for more than a decade. In the five seasons since the Yankees traded him after the 2004 American League Championship Series, Vazquez is one of only two pitchers with 1,000 innings and 1,000 strikeouts. The other is Johan Santana of the Mets.
Vazquez was an All-Star for the Yankees in 2004, but he crumbled in the second half of that season, culminating in Game 7 of the A.L.C.S., when he gave up two home runs to Boston’s Johnny Damon, including a grand slam. His reacquisition has made for a pinstriped game of musical chairs.
Damon played the last four seasons with the Yankees, a tenure that ended when the Yankees signed Nick Johnson to be their designated hitter. Johnson is in town for a physical, and if he passes it, his one-year, $5.5 million deal will be official. Johnson was originally a Yankee, but was traded to Montreal for Vazquez after the 2003 season.
Vazquez will make $11.5 million in 2010 in the final season of a three-year, $34.5 million deal. According to The Post, the prospect the Yankees are sending to Atlanta is the right-hander Arodys Vizcaino, 19, who was 2-4 with a 2.13 E.R.A. in 10 starts for Class A Staten Island last season. Vizcaino was rated the team’s third-best prospect last week by Baseball America.
As for left field, Cabrera was expected to be the starter, and without him, the Yankees could turn to Brett Gardner, who had 26 steals and a .345 on-base percentage. Their payroll is nearing $200 million, a level they did not want to exceed, and I was told last week that the difference between Johnson’s salary and Damon’s expected salary would make it easier to acquire a starting pitcher. That is exactly what happened.
Because they’re the Yankees, it’s tough to rule anything out. But the notion that the Yankees simply must go out and splurge on Damon or Matt Holliday to fill left field is silly. They have won the World Series with Chad Curtis, Ricky Ledee, Shane Spencer and, yes, Brett Gardner in the outfield. If they give the job to Gardner or sign a stopgap/supersub kind of guy, like Mark DeRosa, it would not surprise me at all.
There has been plenty of winter weather this month in Wausau area, including below zero temperatures and a blizzard, but today is the first official day of winter.
The winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The sun appears at its lowest point in the sky.
The first storm of “winter” could be headed to the Wausau area by Wednesday. The National Weather Service in Green Bay is unsure of when and where the storm will hit the hardest, but anyone with travel plans across Wisconsin or the Midwest for the holiday could be facing complications.
Today is Dec 21, 2009 and 21st December is the day of Winter Solstice traditions, also known as Yule. In the North Hemisphere, it is the time of official announcement of the winter. Solstice will take place at 12:47 pm EST.
On this day, we have shortest day and longest night due to the earth’s axial tilt which is the farthest away from the sun. The sun went closer to the horizon making the day time shorter by giving least amount of daylight and thus lengthening the night.
So today, you are enjoying Winter Solstice with shortest day but from tomorrow we will start waiting for Summer Solstice which will arrive on 21st June. On 21st June we have longest day of 15 hours and shortest night.
There are traditional celebrations for this day as well. In ancient, people who were living in a world where everyone believed in mystery and magic. Every year, they celebrated together the miraculously return of the light after the longest night of the year. At the yurt which is a circular wooden structure on a multi-acre property on Old West Saanich Road people will gather from across the region and will illuminate candles at a dark patch of land in Central Saanich.
According to the celebration organizers there will be a Celtic yule log ceremony along with candle-lit. Karen Silverhawk said that it is a time of enjoying nature and sharing beauty with the community. People will come out of their homes wearing warm clothes and holding white taper candles. There will be a walk, music and meditation on the day.
Asher Roth Gay? Asher Roth Comes Out On E! Special
where he will reveal that he is gay, discuss his decision to come out of the closet, and express the fulfillment he is found since moving to a “gay section” of New York City.
According to new reports, the “I Love College” hitmaker is the unnamed hip-hop artist mentioned in former MTV executive Terrance Dean’s 2008 tell-all Hiding in Hip-Hop: Confession Of A Down Low Brother In The Entertainment Industry. Dean has now posted the story on his blog with the title: “Asher Roth Admits He is the Gay Rapper From My Book.” Asher was recently photographed at a Gay Rights Parade in New York that was also attended by Lady Gaga, former American Idol Clay Aiken, and REM frontman Michael Stipe.
Asher was recently dropped from SRC Entertainment.
Road Conditions West Virginia - WV Dot Road Conditions!
WV Dot is reporting the following road conditions for the West Virginia Saturday. West Virginia road conditions today can be monitored 24/7 using WV Dot’s toll free number 1 (877) WVA-ROAD. For Saturday, the following conditions currently exist:
“Power Lines Down: US-119 in Boone county. ROAD CLOSED NORTH OF DANVILLE, IN THE ROCK CREEK AREA, DUE TO POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS THE ROADWAY….Road conditions refer to the impact on area roads due to the weather. …. NOTICE: Highway conditions are subject to change with weather conditions. Observe caution when driving in wet or freezing conditions. Maintain a safe speed and increase following distance.”
“Primary road conditions: Roadways are Snow and/or Ice covered in the following areas Northwest, West, West Central, North Central, Southwest Coal Field, Southern Mountains, Greenbrier Valley, Northern Mountains, Potomac Highlands, Eastern Panhandle, Central Mountains and in Brooke, Hancock county. With Snow and/or Ice spots in the following areas Marshall, Ohio county.
“Secondary Road conditions: Roadways are Snow and/or Ice covered in the following areas Northern Panhandle, Northwest, West, West Central, North Central, Southwest Coal Field, Southern Mountains, Greenbrier Valley, Northern Mountains, Potomac Highlands, Eastern Panhandle, Central Mountains.
“When driving in adverse weather conditions, please slow down, increase your following distance, and always wear a seatbelt. Highway conditions are subject to change with weather conditions. “
WV Dot has issued a 8:34 am EST alert today for Interstates:
Louisiana Happiest State In America: New York Saddest (List)
Louisiana really seems to take the term "Big Easy" to hear as it clocks in as the happiest state in America, while New York is least happiest or saddest.
The list that measures the Happiness level states in America was the result of work done by researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK and Hamilton College in the United States and published in the journal Science.
Here is the full list
1. Louisiana 2. Hawaii 3. Florida 4. Tennessee 5. Arizona 6. Mississippi 7. Montana 8. South Carolina 9. Alabama 10. Maine 11. Alaska 12. North Carolina 13. Wyoming 14. Idaho 15. South Dakota 16. Texas 17. Arkansas 18. Vermont 19. Georgia 20. Oklahoma 21. Colorado 22. Delaware 23. Utah 24. New Mexico 25. North Dakota 26. Minnesota 27. New Hampshire 28. Virginia 29. Wisconsin 30. Oregon 31. Iowa 32. Kansas 33. Nebraska 34. West Virginia 35. Kentucky 36. Washington 37. District of Columbia 38. Missouri 39. Nevada 40. Maryland 41. Pennsylvania 42. Rhode Island 43. Massachusetts 44. Ohio 45. Illinois 46. California 47. Indiana 48. Michigan 49. New Jersey 50. Connecticut 51. New York
ESPN is reporting that former Bucs G.M. Bruce Allen has been hired by Washington owner Daniel Snyder to serve as the Redskins G.M. and executive vice president. Allen was fired along with coach Jon Gruden on Jan. 16. The Glazers will likely be off the hook for Allen's salary, which was guaranteed through 2011.
The Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Bruce Allen was hired by the Redskins on Thursday to fill the same position in Washington in addition to serving as the Redskins' executive vice president. Allen was the Bucs general manager from 2004-2008 after being a senior assistant with the Oakland Raiders.
Allen grew up in the Washington area while his father worked for the Redskins organization. Hall of Famer George Allen coached the Redskins in the 1970's and led them to a Super Bowl appearance. Allen replaces Redskins executive Vinny Cerrato, who resigned on December 17.
With Allen taking a job in Washington, the Bucs owners, the Glazer family, likely will be off the hook for having to pay Allen for the remaining two seasons he was under contract for prior to being fired. It is believed that Allen was making $2 million per year.
Allen, along with head coach Jon Gruden, was given a three-year contract extension in January of 2008 after the Bucs won the NFC South Division in the 2007 season.
On January 16, 2009 Allen and Gruden were fired after a 9-7 season ended in an 0-4 December finish. Gruden currently works for ESPN as a color commentator on Monday Night Football, but could be pursued by Snyder and Allen to coach the Redskins. Gruden and Allen worked together in Oakland from 1998-2001 and in Tampa Bay from 2004-08.
It is a widely held belief that current head coach Jim Zorn will be fired at the end of the season. After going 8-8 in 2008, the Redskins are 4-9 this season.
If Gruden lands an NFL coaching job in 2010, that would free up approximately $8 million worth of salary obligations that the Glazers owe Gruden for the next two years as long as Gruden would make at least $4 million per year in compensation from Washington or another NFL team.
