The city of Venice Italy was flooded for the 79th time this year. A foot of water covered St. Mark's Square, one of the lowest points in the city. Flooding is common in this and nearby areas as they are only 32 inches above the average sea level. This year's flooding broke the old record of 78 floods in one year set in 1979.
An earthquake measuring 5.7 struck Taiwan at 4:22pm, and was centered 13 miles north of Hualien, a city on the east coast. Hualien is 75 miles south of Taipei, the nation's capital. There were no reports of damage or injury, but this was the 36th earthquake centered near Taiwan this year.
An earthquake measuring 5.0 struck 18 miles east-northeast of the town of Little Lake, California at 12:17pm. Little Lake is 150 north of Los Angeles. An aftershock followed 10 minutes later with a magnitude of 3.8. No damages or injuries were reported.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 3.3 struck at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine which is 190 miles west of Johannesburg, South Africa. Twenty-two men were trapped in a mudslide caused by the quake following heavy rains.
An earthquake of magnitude 4.3 at 11:41pm, and was centered in Blytheville, Arkansas. No damage or injuries have been reported, but the earthquake was felt in Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee where buildings and furniture shook. The trmor was felt as far away as Cape Girardeau, Missouri which is 100 miles north of Blytheville.
The government of Mountserrat has urged residents to evacuate, due to continued increasing activity of the nearby Soufriere Hills volcano which could create a devastating tsunami. It is believed that should the volcano erupt as much as 350 million cubic feet of volcanic material could impact the sea as a nearly solid bulk. There have been earthquakes, steam eruptions, ash clouds, and recently pyroclastic flows. Unfortunately the weather is quite pleasant and people are reluctant to leave.
A new theory on the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs has come out of Israel. Scientists there have positted that the collision of two neutron stars could have bathed the earth in cosmic radiation. This bombardment would have destroyed the protective layers of the earth's atmosphere leaving plants and animals defenseless to the hard radiation of the collsion and our own sun.
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 12 miles southeast of Kiyazaki on the Japanese island of Kyushu, and 20 miles beneath the surface at 5:18 EST or 7:18 am Tokyo time. A tsunami alert was issued for coastal areas, and twenty minutes after the quake a 21 centimeter tsunami came ashore at Miyazaki. So far there have been no reports of damages or injuries, but there have been reports of furniture being knocked over by the tremor.
Finally, as a non-sequitur, I ask for help from our readers. I found out that Paul Ruebens (a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman) was in the movie "Batman Returns". Unfortunately, I cannot remember what his role was. If you know off the top of your head who he played(or happen to have the time to watch the movie and look for him), or if you have comments about this page, please e-mail me, Schadwen the Warlock.