Foo Fighters not done with touring

During the alt-rock titans Foo Fighters' show headlining the Reading Festival in England on Monday night, singer Dave Grohl almost gave some fans a heart attack. "Well, well, well, the ... Reading Festival," he said onstage. "You guys realize we've got a lot of songs to play. It's the last show of the tour and it's the last show for a long time."
Apparently, some fans and reports misunderstood that as the Foos' last show forever, and news quickly spread that the band had called it quits at Reading.  While Reading would hypothetically be an apropos place to call it off -- Monday night was the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's legendary set there -- it doesn't appear to be the case.
The band has at least three shows impending -- a Rock the Vote appearance at the Democratic National Convention on Sept. 5, and then two festivals in Atlanta and Pensacola, Fla., later that month.
And for what it's worth, the Foos' official tour schedule site still features a large banner saying, "We are coming for you too. More shows being added here soon."
The Reading set was mammoth -- 26 songs, including the live rarities "Alone + Easy Target," "Exhausted" and a rousing "Happy Birthday" rendition to Grohl's mom. But fans worried that they just missed the last Foo Fighters show ever can resume normal breathing. 

Eighteen years ago in Seattle, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl decided to form a new band after the death of singer Kurt Cobain. Today, the Foo Fighters are regarded as one of the greatest (and one of the most seismologically intense) rock bands of the new millennium.
But on Sunday, Grohl told the crowd at the 2012 Reading Festival that the performance marked the Foo Fighters' "last show for a long time."
"Well, well, well. The f--king Reading festival. You guys [realize] we've got a lot of songs to play. It's the last show of the tour and it's the last show for a long time," Grohl said, according to NME.

Ann Romney praises husband

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept to the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, praised lovingly by his wife from their national convention stage as the "man American needs" and cheered by delegates eager to propel him into the fall campaign against President Barack Obama.
The hall erupted in cheers when Romney strolled on stage and shared a hug and kiss with his wife of more than 40 years.
"This man will not fail. This man will not let us down," Mrs. Romney said in a prime-time speech that sounded at times like a heart-to-heart talk among women and at times like a testimonial to her husband's little-known softer side.
"It's the moms who always have to work harder, to make everything right," she said. And she vouched firmly for her husband, who lags behind Obama in surveys among women voters: "You can trust Mitt. He loves America."
Earlier, the Romneys watched on television at a hotel suite across the street from the convention hall as delegates sealed his hard-won victories in the primaries and caucuses of last winter. They ended the evening together in a VIP box just above the convention floor.
To send Romney and ticketmate Paul Ryan into the fall campaign, the convention quickly approved a conservative platform that calls for tax cuts — not government spending — to stimulate the economy at a time of sluggish growth and 8.3 percent unemployment.
Republican mockery of Obama began almost instantly from the podium at a convention postponed once and dogged still by Hurricane Isaac. The Democratic president has "never run a company. He hasn't even run a garage sale or seen the inside of a lemonade stand," declared Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party.
More than eight hours in length, the session inside the Republicans' red-white-and-blue-themed convention hall passed up no opportunity to broaden Romney's appeal. Speakers included Hispanic candidates for office; former Rep. Artur Davis, a one-time Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus; businessmen and women and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Romney's most persistent, conservative nemesis in the nominating campaign.

Hurricane Isaac 2012 path

Isaac to hit Louisiana, Mississippi; tropical storm threatens flooding, high winds inland

Louisiana and Mississippi, including areas like New Orleans and the coast ravaged seven years ago by Hurricane Katrina, won't get off easy on Tropical Storm Isaac, forecasters say. It is on the verge of becoming Hurricane Isaac 2012, and it will strengthen before making landfall.

 Hurricane Isaac 2012 path

Though it appeared early today to perhaps make landfall as a low-level Category 1 storm, the latest forecast updates reveal with a high degree of confidence that the storm make landfall in Louisiana, possibly as a strong Category 2, before tracking across New Orleans and into Mississippi.

And, while coastal areas including the Mississippi coast still recovering in some respects from Katrina and New Orleans are expected to take a heavy blow from Hurricane Isaac, inland areas like Jackson and Shreveport should be on high alert. The storm may stall after it makes land late Tuesday or early Wednesday, pummeling the region with high winds and heavy rains, forecasters said.
With its massive size and ponderous movement, a strengthening Isaac could become a punishing rain machine depending on its power, speed and where it comes ashore along the Gulf Coast.
The focus has been on New Orleans as Isaac takes dead aim at the city seven years after Hurricane Katrina, but the impact will be felt well beyond the city limits. The storm's winds could be felt more than 200 miles from the storm's center.
The Gulf Coast region has been saturated thanks to a wet summer, and some officials have worried more rain could make it easy for trees and power lines to fall over in the wet ground. Too much water also could flood crops, and wind could topple plants like corn and cotton.
"A large, slow-moving system is going to pose a lot of problems — winds, flooding, storm surge and even potentially down the road river flooding," said Richard Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami. "That could happen for days after the event."
The storm's potential for destruction was not lost on Alabama farmer Bert Driskell, who raises peanuts, cotton, wheat, cattle and sod on several thousand acres near Grand Bay, in Mobile County.

 

earthquakes rattles San Diego area

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Dozens of small to moderate earthquakes struck southeastern California on Sunday, knocking trailer homes off their foundations, shattering windows and rattling nerves in a small farming town east of San Diego.
The largest quake, at 1:57 p.m., registered at a magnitude 5.5 and was centered about three miles northwest of the town of Brawley, said Robert Graves, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Another quake about an hour and a half earlier registered at magnitude 5.3.
No injuries were reported.
More than 30 additional earthquakes with magnitudes of at least 3.5 jiggled the same area near the southern end of the Salton Sea, Graves said.
"The type of activity that we're seeing could possibly continue for several hours or even days," Graves said.
The quakes pushed 20 mobile homes at a trailer park off their foundations, displacing the families that lived in them, said Maria Peinado, a spokeswoman for the Imperial County Emergency Operations Center.
Sporadic power outages affecting 2,500 Imperial Irrigation District customers also prompted authorities to evacuate some patients from one of the county's two hospitals.
At the El Sol Market in Brawley, food packages fell from shelves and littered the aisles.
Several glasses and a bottle of wine crashed to the floor and shattered at Assaggio, an Italian restaurant in Brawley, said owner Jerry Ma. The shaking was short-lived but intense, he said.
"It felt like there was quake every 15 minutes. One after another. My kids are small and they're scared and don't want to come back inside," said Mike Patel, who manages Townhouse Inn & Suites in Brawley.

A TV came crashing down and a few light fixtures broke inside the motel, Patel said.
A Brawley police dispatcher said several downtown buildings sustained minor damage.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 3.9, occurred at 10:02 a.m. The USGS said more than 100 aftershocks struck the same approximate epicenter, about 16 miles north of El Centro.
Some shaking was felt along the San Diego County coast in Del Mar, some 120 miles from the epicenter, as well as in the Coachella Valley, southern Orange County and parts of northern Mexico.
USGS seismologist Lucy Jones said earthquake swarms are characteristic of the region, known as the Brawley Seismic Zone.
"The area sees lots of events at once, with many close to the largest magnitude, rather than one main shock with several much smaller aftershocks," Jones said.
The last major swarm was in 2005, following a magnitude-5.1 quake, she said.
Sunday's quake cluster occurred in what scientists call a transition zone between the Imperial and San Andreas faults, so they weren't assigning the earthquakes to either fault, Graves said.

Latest Solar Flare Activity: latest solar flare activity August 08 2012

Latest Solar Flare Activity: latest solar flare activity August 08 2012:

Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from  07/2100Z
to 08/2100Z:  Solar activity was low.  Region 1542 (S14E50) remained
the most active region on the solar disk, producing seven C-class
flares.  The largest of these flares was a C4/Sf flare that occurred
at 08/1132Z.  A large portion of a filament erupted from the
southwest quadrant beginning around 08/0200Z. A slow coronal mass
ejection (CME) (estimated plane-of-sky speed 346 km/s) was first
observed off the west limb in SOHO/LASCO C2 imagery at 08/0612Z and
was likely associated with the filament eruption. The bulk of the
CME material did not appear to be Earth-directed.
latest solar flare activity August 08 2012
IB.  Solar Activity Forecast:  Solar activity is expected to be low
with a slight chance for an isolated M-class flare.

IIA.  Geophysical Activity Summary 07/2100Z to 08/2100Z:
The geomagnetic field was quiet to unsettled with an active period
from 08/0000-0300Z.  Indications of a solar sector boundary crossing
were evident on the ACE spacecraft as sustained southward IMF Bz and
enhanced IMF Bt occurred prior to the active period. ACE EPAM data
indicated the beginning of a slow rise in energetic particles at
approximately 08/1200Z.  This rise is likely associated with the
anticipated glancing blow from the 04 Aug CME.

Latest Solar Flare Activity: latest solar flare activity august 1 2012

Latest Solar Flare Activity: latest solar flare activity august 1 2012

Analysis of Solar Active Regions and Activity from  31/2100Z
to 01/2100Z:  Solar activity was low.  Regions 1528 (N17W56), 1532
(S19W14), 1535 (N18E37), 1536 (S22W01), and 1538 (S22E54) all
produced low level C-class flares.  Region 1536 is the most
magnetically complex group on the visible disk with a weak
Beta-gamma configuration.  No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections
(CMEs) were observed during the reporting period.

IB.  Solar Activity Forecast:  Solar activity is expected to continue
at low levels with a chance for M-class flares.

IIA.  Geophysical Activity Summary 31/2100Z to 01/2100Z:
The geomagnetic field was quiet.