The Colorado Floods

All Mark Changaris and Stephen Smith of Boulder, Colorado could do is stand by recording with a camera and watch the water flow into the house and over the balcony to the first level and out the front door. When the river of water stopped rushing into their house Mark just started to play his piano. This is one of the many stories of those effected by the flooding in Colorado. But like many residents, they are not letting this event take their spirit away.

Mark and Stephen's Story:
(http://www.upworthy.com/watch-a-man-playing-piano-in-his-house-after-the-floods-for-a-heartbreaking-reason-am2-5c?g=3)

Photo from www.accuweather.com

Photo from USAToday

Thousands of residents of Boulder, Colorado have been effected by this storm system that has created flooding through out 17 counties. The flood destroyed 1,500 homes, according to Colo. Office of Emergency Management, and more than 11, 750 people have been evacuated.

“The good news is we’ve got 16 helicopters,” said John Schulz, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office in hard-hit Larimer County, about 60 miles north of Denver for The New York Times. “The bad news is they can’t go anywhere.”

Rains on Sunday prevented rescue efforts to continue for those who are still stranded with no way of getting out. Power, cellphones, and landlines have been out since early last week.

Monday the water receded enough that residents
could return back to their homes. Most of these homes, however, have been destroyed and are covered in a layer of thick muck.

What is causing this flooding?
The reason the flooding is happening is because a blocking pattern keeps drawing moisture up from the tropics. This blocking pattern is a system of atmospheric pressure that is nearly stationary causing whether systems not to change. Currently there is a blocking pattern that is bringing moisture from the tropical region up through the US. When this high moisture air hits the Rocky Mountains it is forced up into the atmosphere and condenses into heavy rain clouds.

Until this blocking pattern dissipates it will continue to rain. Some scientists are already contributing this event to global warming and the effect that it may have on the global climate.

Syrian Dilema

     President Obama is currently advocating the use of military force in Syria. In a prime time news conference Tuesday night Obama urged the American people to support him in this effort.

     "No one disputes that chemical weapons were used in Syria. The world saw thousands of videos, cellphone pictures and social media accounts of the attack," Obama said. "If we fail to act the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons. As the band against these weapons erodes, other tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using them."

     This is the same domino effect excuse that governed the US in the early 1950s. The belief that communism would spread to neighboring countries of communist states unless someone stepped in to stop it. The united States Government used this theory to support the unpopular Vietnam War from 1954-75. The use of force had no effect and the communist victory in Vietnam did not increase the spread of communism.

     How did this Syrian problem start? When Hafez Assad died in 2000, his son, Bashar Assad had to take control. Bashar had been studying in London to become a doctor but when his brother, who was brought up to rule after his father, died in a car accident, Bashar was next in line to succeed his father. The Syrian people believed that Bashar would bring change but he continued the oppressive rule of his father.

   With the Libyan protests and revolutionary ideals spreading to other surrounding countries and Syria in 2011 Assad reacted with military force starting a civil war. The US closed the embassy in Damascus. Initially Obama was opposed to military action but with the recent use of chemical weapons Obama sees it as our duty to humanity to make the violence stop.

     Many American people are not willing to support a Syrian conflict at the whim of the President and seek a more democratic process in dealing with chemical weapons in Syria.

     Tewe Burri expressed his concern with the judgement by Obama in a comment on the article by the Los Angeles Times "Obama's Syria strategy: Deft improvisation or impulsive risk taking?", writing,"Compulsive risk taking, wars, military strikes and invasions into other countries, shouldn't be executed at the whim of Obama's order, and shouldn't be rushed.  ...Have majority public approval, preferably 75%public approval by official vote by mail, ballet(similar to referendum), or petition, before military can be deployed in, or strike, other countries."

     Currently the US government is working with Russia who has an arms trade agreement with Assad to find a solution to remove the chemical weapons from Syria. Syrian President Bashar Assad said that he would hand over his chemical weapons because of the initiative by the Russians on this matter. 

     According to the proposal by the Russians, Syria would join the international Chemical weapons Convention and then turn over all information on its chemical weapons programs. 

     US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet with the Russian Secretary of State late Thursday in Geneva to discuss this further. 

     

Chobani Yogurt

If you haven't seen this story yet it is quite interesting. Greek yogurt is loved by many and despised by others. It has a taste and texture that many find distasteful. But for the health nut Greek yogurt is a must because it has the best protein ratio. But dairy, like other food products, is subject to outside pathogens and even in the most sterile environments contamination is still a threat.
The Greek yogurt company Chobani is being scrutinized over the harm that dairy mold is causing in 38 of their flavors.
Eighty nine people have reported illness after eating one of these contaminated yogurts in the Twin Falls area.
Last week Chobani told stores carrying these containers to destroy 35 varieties. According to an article by USA Today the code for these containers is 16-012 and the expiration dates between Sept. 11 and Oct. 7.
The "mold can act as an opportunistic pathogen for those with compromised immune systems," Chobani said last week.
The threat from this is low and the sickness that people have experienced has been minor. However, it is important if you are at the grocery store over the next couple weeks looking for yogurt check the product code.

Assignment for Tuesday 9/10/13

Peter Chapman

Multi Platform Storytelling

September 9,2013

Argus Leader Article

            The story about Wal-Mart in the newspaper follows the pyramid style and with shorter sentences that give you quick information. The many quotes are the only things that seem to slow down the story. But otherwise it is the model for the modern newspaper. Both the online version on the print version have the same body but different titles. The newspaper has a large bold headline that attracts the reader’s attention. Where as the online version has a longer headline that informs the reader more about what they are going to read and presents the main point of the story. In this way a person might not need to read the full article and the digital version headline can be used as a tweet to get the news to the general public.

            The published article and the blog differ greatly. The blog starts off by saying what a hard day of work the employee who has to verify the petition names has in order to introduce us to the topic of the article. This is a slower way that the inverted pyramid style and does not throw the information at you. Because it is a blog it tells more of a story. Also the blog allows for information on what the legal process is for the Save Our Neighborhood group if the petition does not meet the required signatures. Jonathan Ellis uses another similar legal situation in order to describe the process which gives credibility to his writing where as if he just said what the process was it would not be as concrete of a detail.