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Subscribe to RSSTonight we're airing an item about the South Florida Water Management District. They aren't in the news because of anything they've done wrong—rather, because of something they do very well: measuring the slightest change in the water levels in the aquifer beneath their territory.
You've no doubt heard by now that the Japan quake moved the entire nation slightly to the East and lowered the terrain in some places (which actually made for some localized flooding this weekend in concert with the so-called "Supermoon"). But you may not know that 34-minutes after the quake, underground water measurement devices started going wild in Florida. It took that long for the shaking to go all the way around the world—but they detected it, and it kept shaking for more than two hours.
A number of you have emailed us expressing your best wishes for the safety of our folks abroad and in harm's way. Please rest assured: as someone who often travels with them, they are pros in every way, and they will do their level best to stay safe. There's no such thing as being "assigned" to serve in a war zone in our company or any other. You must volunteer for duty. We are blessed with talented, experienced and brave foreign correspondents—and you'll see a few of them tonight.
We hope you can join us for our Monday night broadcast.
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we wouldn't miss you....EVER......
We wouldn't miss you .....EVER !!!
Brian: Your information pertaining to the South Florida Management District was most interesting. I didn't realize it took only 34 minutes to reach that area of the world after the super quake in Japan. I learn something new every day thanks to certain blogs you send out. All of the foreign journalists are still performing exellent reporting from abroad, especially in Libya and Japan. There is no doubt in my mind that NBC has the best overseas team of all networks. I didn't realize they volunteer for these assignments. It's certainly not for eveyone. I'm sure they can take care of themselves when the going gets rough.
Iv'e always wanted to see the New York St. Patrick's parade in person. I would love to experience the emotion of that yearly fest. I will be in New York for a day next month. Its been years since Iv'e been up there and really looking forward to it. I'll catch you on tonight's broadcast.
Good Evening Mr.Williams, a fine broadcast this evening as always. Always wonderful to see Richard on the broadcast! Richard, Mr.Maceda, Ian Williams, Mr.Bazell and Mr.Cowan are all doing an excellent job! All NBC foreign journalists are reporting excellently and always want all of them to be Extra,Extra Safe and Well! I agree they are all talented, experienced and brave journalists covering these areas. Always Stay Extra,Extra Safe and Well All of You!
Now on to the broadcast. First of all the report from the Pentagon about the large amount of airstrikes over Libya by US warplanes and other nations. It cerainly appears much of the air defenses of Gadhafi are destroyed along with the ground troops with many casualties. Gadhafi may very well survive the attacks if the rebels don't kill him. It is interesting that only Qatar has joined within the Arab League of nations in this conflict.
The report by Mr.Maceda from Tripoli told of how Gadhafi sees himself as a target even though the United States stated he is not the main target. Gadhafi having many loyalists within his family and not being worried of any threat. Along with much oil reserves he feels quite protected.
Richard's report from Tobruk told of how the rebels seem to be celebrating victory due to all the US airstrikes against Gadhafi air defenses and ground troops. Seeing the rebels on the offensive gives them hope, yet as Richard stated they need alot of help and are not experienced military units. Gathering weapons such as rocket launchers and going to the front lines to fight may or may not lead to success. Richard stating there are tow kinds of rebels, 1) the volunteers who go to the front lines and 2) the Units of military that have defected from Gadhafi. Hearing the commander took the day off seemes strange since the rebels need leadership and help fighting. Very difficult to overcome Gadhafi without any assistance from the outside.
It was good to hear the four New York Times journalists were released with the help of the Turkish Ambassador. Nice to know they are safe.
The report by Mr.Bazell from Japan showed how the work at the nuclear reactors to stop the radiation leaks have incurred some setbacks. Learning that some of the pumps are beyond repair is disturbing, but the sea water seems to be reaching the tanks. Then the food scare of radiation detected in milk and leafy vegetables is quite frightening to people. Even if it is low levels it still is alarming and certainly the farmers are threatened with contaminated crops. One only hopes it subsides and the threat of radiation ceases. Time will tell.
The report by Ian Williams from the fishing community showed how the tsunami simply destroyed and overcame any protection the people had against the rushing water. Seeing the wall completely destroyed in pieces certainly was awful. It is horrible the people are sleeping in their cars since they have no place to go and that only a couple of day ago some relief arrived in the community. All these fishing villages are urgent priorties for the help of all the aid agencies.
Incredible to learn that Japan was moved to the East by the quake and that Florida felt the effects in water measurement underground 34 minutes after the quake. Tnen to last for two hours. Amazing.
The piece by Mr.Cowan was heartbreaking about the young American English teacher Taylor Anderson only 24 yrs old who was lost in the quake and tsunami. She was devoted to teaching children in the area and was compassionate about helping people. Saving so many children in the midst of the tsunami. So very tragic.
Then the survival of the 16yr old boy and his grandmother after nine days being found by rescuers. A miracle.
One thoughts and prayers go out to all who haved missing loved ones in the region and those who have lost loved ones.
Thank You for the broadcast Mr.Williams. Peace to You and to All!
Be Well Everyone!
Stay Extra,Extra Safe and Well Richard! Amazing,Excellent Reporting this weekend too!
Take Extra Good Care Richard and Crew!
Lisa
Check out the story in New Scientist about the Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctic and its speed up by almost half a meter following the earthquake in Japan:
Sorry- here's the link to the New Scientist article:
Brian, on your broadcast, the printed words: Who remains. Clever but suggestive and strange, though
not unseemingly But it jumped out at me. Another terrific broadcast, as always. Have a nice evening. Phyllis
everyone= i live within the south florida water management district and i cant tell you how much water they waste...especially on lake okeechobee(research it)...and now we have a very serious drought because of this!
"We are blessed with talented, experienced and brave foreign correspondents—and you'll see a few of them tonight."
Does Brian actually believe that NBC's foreign correspondents are any better than those at the other networks? They're all more or less about the same. If Brian was at ABC or CBS, he'd be crowing about the correspondents at those networks. Brian is like the kid who's always bragging that his stuff is better than your stuff--regardless of what that "stuff" is. You hear it so often that after a while, it just becomes background noise. How about less cheerleading and more newsreading?
On his HBO show last Friday, Bill Maher was talking about the horribly parasitic way in which the network news organizations cover catastrophes like the one in Japan. Maher labeled this coverage "disaster porn" because the goal of the news organizations is not to provide information, but rather to voyeuristically exploit the situation by showing as much miserable suffering as possible, followed by a few scenes of tearful reunions. And what single example did Maher use to support his thesis? He cited "Ann Curry holding a broken doll." Bam! He nailed it. What does it tell us that the only illustration of "disaster porn" Maher gave was from NBC? Obviously, Maher is familiar with Ann Curry and Nightly News. Actually, I'm surprised that Curry even went to Japan in the first place. She usually only leaves the country when she's following George Clooney somewhere.
In the March 13 New York Times Magazine, executive editor Bill Keller wrote a column about the aggregation of news in which he said, among other things, "Some once-serious news outlets give pride of place not to stories they think important but to stories that are 'trending' on Twitter--the 'American Idol'-ization of news." Decorum and propriety prevented Keller from specifically mentioning Nightly News, but clearly it was one of the organizations he was describing. It's obvious that the Nightly News producers spend much of their day scouring the "trending" lists on Twitter, Yahoo, Google and other sites as fodder for that evening's broadcast. How else to describe a news organization that ran stories on the "supermoon" for three consecutive nights--including Saturday's 1:45 story that managed to include gratuitous clips from three different films: "The Wolfman", "E.T." and "Breakfast at Tiffany's"?
What's gotten into Lester Holt recently? At the end of Saturday's broadcast, he bragged that, "We featured live reports from four continents tonight--just another day in the office for all of us worldwide at NBC News." So? Nightly News is supposed to be covering the news--wherever it occurs. That's their job. Why is Lester trying to take credit for doing what he's supposed to be doing? And on Sunday, near the end of the broadcast, we were shown a copy of the current issue of "Newsweek" with the cover story about all the horrible things happening around the world (tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, revolutions) followed by the question, "What the (expletive) is next?" Lester's response: "We wish we could tell you, but we can tell you this--whatever it may be we'll be covering it on multiple fronts as we did again tonight." With all his bragging, Lester is beginning to sound a lot like...Brian Williams.
Speaking of Brian, can someone please buy him a thesaurus? After the first commercial break of Monday's broadcast, he said, "Returning to our non-stop coverage of this ongoing disaster in Japan...." But the coverage of Japan didn't begin until minute 16. Does Brian understand what "non-stop" means? It means without stopping. If the Nightly News coverage of Japan was non-stop, it wouldn't have begun in the middle of the broadcast.
Where in the world is Richard Engel? As Brian introduced Engel's report from Tobruk, Libya on Monday, the graphic below Engel read "Tripoli". Fortunately, someone in the control room must have realized what was going on, because at the end of the report, the graphic had been corrected to read "Tobruk". By the way, how long will it be before the Nightly News producers start augmenting their Libya coverage with clips from the 1967 movie "Tobruk" and the soon-to-be-released Keanu Reeves movie "Tripoli"?
Dear Brian,
The President, God bless him, is coming under attack because he did not involve Congress. In my
opinion, it was the right decision to use tomahawks and not the tomfoolery of Congress which
would entailed more talk while lives were being lost in Libya and President Obama acted with
the international community. None can fault him for being in Brazil which worked for good in
this "what if" situation. Have a nice day. Best of luck Phyllis
Who remains, Brian? I picked up on that phrase this afternnoon in Bible Study. I have a religous
world review and thought I would share with those like-mind. Other folks can tune me out. To each
his own. Anyway, quoting from a Psalm, God shall fill the place with dead bodies (winepress).
Who remains standing? His people is the answer and when the solution is simple God is answering
and the Rapture is the solution. April 6, 2011. Phyllis
When the solution is simple, God is answering." Albert Einstein.
PS NBC Fan Brian and Lester have bragging rights. I am surprise you tune in to Nightly News and
that you don't switch the channel. Whatever!!! To each is own! Phyllis