SAN DIEGO - Faced with unrelenting winds whipping wildfires into a frenzy across Southern California, firefighters conceded defeat on many fronts Tuesday to an unstoppable force that has chased more than 500,000 people away.
Unless the shrieking Santa Ana winds subside, and that’s not expected for at least another day, fire crews say they can do little more than try to wait it out and react — tamping out spot fires and chasing ribbons of airborne embers to keep new fires from flaring.
“If it’s this big and blowing with as much wind as it’s got, it’ll go all the way to the ocean before it stops,” said San Diego Fire Capt. Kirk Humphries. “We can save some stuff but we can’t stop it.”
Tentacles of unpredictable, shifting flame have burned across nearly 600 square miles, killing one person, destroying more than 1,300 homes and prompting the biggest evacuation in California history, from north of Los Angeles, through San Diego to the Mexican border.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the flames were threatening 68,000 more homes.
“We have had an unfortunate situation that we’ve had three things come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind,” Schwarzenegger said. “And so this makes the perfect storm for a fire.” Source
REYKJAVIK, Iceland - Yoko Ono urged the world to give peace a chance Tuesday as she unveiled a monument in memory of her husband, John Lennon.
Ono lit up the Imagine Peace Tower on Videy island near the Icelandic capital’s harbor on what would have been Lennon’s 67th birthday.
The former Beatle was shot dead outside his New York apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980 by deranged fan Mark David Chapman.
Ono was joined at the ceremony by the couple’s son, Sean Lennon, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and bandmate George Harrison’s widow Olivia.
“We’re all here for Johnny’s birthday and the big light,” Starr said. “I love the light.”
The tower is a beam of light, radiating from a wishing well bearing the words “imagine peace” in 24 languages. The plan is for it to be lit each year between his birthday, Oct. 9, and the anniversary of his death on Dec. 8.
Ono, 74, has said she came up with the concept for the light tower in 1965 and that Lennon was interested.
“I got the idea because I just liked the romantic idea of having a building that just appears, emerges once in a while but sometimes it is not seen,” Ono said on Iceland’s Channel 2 television.
She said she chose Iceland, the world’s northernmost country, because it was a very eco-friendly country that relied on geothermal energy.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “There’s a certain strangeness to it. I would like to say it’s magical.” Source
According to the recent report released by Japanese magazine publisher Enterbrain shows that the Nintendo Wii has outsold the Sony Playstation four to one in Japan.
The report shows that the Wii has sold 1.6 million units in the last 26 weeks, while the PS3 has only sold a disappointing 385,492 game systems. Read the rest of this entry »
