People like to make fun of the overly dramatic weatherman. Well, this guy takes the prize. The Accuweather.com guy loses his mind while talking about the snow storm that hit the east coast of the U.S. last week. Enjoy this and get ready for the snow that will blanket us tomorrow.

This clip is from Funnyordie.com

NASA took a hit with the proposed budget cutting out the manned mission to the moon. But business goes on with other missions including the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has announced that live video and audio will be streamed on their site.  You can expect to see internal views of the station while the astronauts are on duty and external views while they are sleeping. When the ISS is out of site of the receiving antenna a tracking map will be placed on the screen.

Since the station makes a complete trip around the world every 90 minutes there are 45 minute periods where the screen will show darkness including some views of city lights.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour will be meeting up with the ISS this weekend and according to the NASA site activity will be ramped up as the mission gets underway this coming weekend.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html?param=station

I found a fun and very challenging racing game this afternoon. Online Drifting World Championships puts you on a track and all the controls are run off the keyboard. I played for about 20 minutes and didn’t manage to make it without spinning off the track at least twice. It is hard enough that time goes flying by as you try to concentrate on busting a good lap.

If you have a good time wasting game let me know what you like to play.

Yesterday afternoon I was overjoyed with the unveiling of the new iPad by Apple. After a night to sleep on it and reading more than a few tech blogs smashing the new gadget I’m a little less enthusiastic about version 1.0

The consensus among the techerati is the iPad isn’t powerful enough to be a device that actually replaces anything. It’s essentially an overblown iTouch.

It won’t take long for Apple developers to put out some really cool apps designed just for the iPad. As it stands now some apps are scaled down to run at the same size as the native iTouch. There is an option to scale them full screen but some reports are saying they don’t look very good. There isn’t a microphone or a camera on the device, two things that have made my iPhone so much more fun to use.

I still maintain that I would enjoy having something like this, even version 1.0 just for the entertainment that it would bring. I spend a lot of time fiddling with my iPhone in the evenings the iPad will be a fantastic toy. I think toy may just summarize the problem people are having with the device. When it comes down to it the iPad isn’t a phone, or an iPod. It really is just a toy for grownups. I want to try and wait for a few upgrades on the device but when it comes down to it I’m at the age where I still enjoy my toys. I may not be able to wait long enough for the later edition.

I shot a little video, it’s not quite ready for primetime but still an interesting look at what we do when stuck waiting hour upon hour waiting for the president to arrive for his Town Hall Meeting at LCCC in Elyria.

Checkout the tons of equipment required to pull this off. The Secret Service and the advance teams from The White House do this almost nonstop.

According to a blog on the Huffington Post a recent analysis of a compromised list of passwords shows that we arent doing a great job of coming up with hard to crack passwords.

Check out the top 10, if your password is on this list, you might want to think about a new one.

1. 123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. Password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

What a week. My trip to Haiti falls through, I covered a tragic plane crash that took the lives of four people, and now the president is coming to town on Friday.

There is such a massive difference between covering Obama the candidate and Obama the president. When the candidate came to town it was a pretty simple deal for us. Bring your drivers license and something that at least looks like a press pass and your in. 

My how times have changed. Secret Service agents have been in town chasing down dummies that post threatening comments about the president on Facebook. Apparently they are pretty serious about that kind of thing. I’m sure it was a little awkward for the guy who was at work when two Secret Service agents showed up to discuss his stance on their newest boss. Military helicopters have been flying around and several reporters and photographers are being cleared through the Whitehouse and credentialed for the visit.

The hassles are part of the job for us but if you find yourself in the area between the airport and the college Friday you might as well forget about trying to get anywhere. Intersections in the dozens will be locked down for the length of the presidents visit.

If you are interested in following along check out www.Chroniclet.com we will be posting updates the entire day. Essentially it comes down to an all hands on deck situation. It’s not everyday the president rolls into town.

Well it’s Monday morning and a few days ago I thought I would be on the road to New York City for a flight to Haiti. Instead I’m in the office trying to get the word on a new departure date.

At this point we have two options, hopefully the FAA opens the airport and we can fly directly to Port Au Prince. The other possibility is flying to the Dominican Republic and going overland into the disaster zone. The borders have been closed for a few days so we need them to open up.

With every day that passes the situation grows more dire in Haiti, some estimates have millions of people homeless or dislocated. The team will be traveling with medical equipment and money to buy any supplies they can get their hands on.

In the end I’m not too upset by the small delay. I’ve been fighting bronchitis for the last few days so the antibiotics have had time to kick in. Also, there would have been some time that a couple of the immunizations wouldn’t have been at peak protection. I’ve also been using my time to freshen up my emergency medicine skills and to learn everything possible about survival in an urban crisis situation. I’m truly approaching this from a worst case scenario. Anything less than that will make my day.

I have reached the point where the initial rush of fear about the horrible conditions on the ground have been replaced by an urgent desire to actually get there. My bosses have already spent a large amount of money just getting me ready to go. The shots alone were $300 and I won’t get into how much it costs to rent a mobile up-link for the satellite.  As this stretches out I may find myself at a point where all this preparation will be for nothing. Eventually they will have to pull the plug on the venture. Ultimately as long as I can convince the team to take me along I will go to Haiti. I would prefer to have the equipment and the ability to disseminate my work to an audience but I will shoot for myself and do the volunteer work as an individual if it comes to that.

I’ll be updating the blog and Facebook for anybody interested in following the trip as it unfolds. I’ll include all the links when I get more information.

I’m getting set for a trip to Haiti. Like most things that turn into huge projects it started simply enough. Chronicle reporter Cindy Leise did a story on  Church on the Northcoast and their efforts to go to Haiti to offer help to the victims of the 7.0 earthquake. It’s a natural thing for a photographer to say “hey, I want to go too.”

I started making calls and getting the information together on the cost to travel as well as the equipment I would need to get images back from the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Our managing editor liked the idea of following a local group of people who are simply throwing themselves headlong into the chaos that is Haiti. We met with our big boss Andy Young and after making promises that I wouldn’t get killed and that we have a valid reason for going the deal was done.

I made arrangements for some pretty cool gear, a satellite phone that will work anywhere in the world and a marsat unit that transmits my images and stories to a satellite. I also had to contact the Elyria City Health Department for a series of shots and medications. Whooping cough, Typhoid, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, as well as meds for Malaria. They also included some pretty serious information about Dengue fever. Apparently this little thing is transferred by mosquitoes and can cause hemorrhagic bleeding… uhh yea, that’s not good. 

I’ve been asked the same question more than once, why am I going?

The answer is pretty simple. I am a journalist. It’s who I am and what I do, having an opportunity to do my part to report on an international news event is too much to pass up. Having the chance to follow Lorain County people into the hell that is Haiti makes it even better. I will record, report, and photograph their activities as they arrive in Haiti with nothing but money to start their mission. Traveling with medical personnel the group will likely begin treating people within hours of boots on the ground. Their hope as well as mine is to hookup with a group for logistical support when we arrive in Port au Prince.

I’ll be doing my best to update the blog during the trip and will be providing daily stories and photos on Chroniclet.com

Hey weather geeks. Now that winter is getting interesting, here is a pretty good site that makes it nice and easy to get a graphical look at the weather. VueTOO features six panels that can each be modified to show different content in each window. This one relies heavily on satellite views but can easily be changed to add Doppler radar images.

When you signup for a free account you can build your own customized pages and save them so you don’t have to add your favorite panels everytime you go onto the page.