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• At 6.8, this quake is nearly as strong as the one that turned Haiti into a pile of rubble. Here’s a map. More details on the quake as we get them. This literally just happened.
• Update: The A.P. (grumble) reports that the quake was strong enough to shake buildings in Beijing for a minute, despite its relatively long distance away.

• 27 people were injured (in a crowd of 100!) by the 1995 Volvo source

• Poor guy. A climber reportedly fell inside the caldera (i.e. giant eruption-caused hole) of Mt. St. Helens today. He was five feet from the edge of the crater when the ground he was standing on collapsed.  Rescue crews are now trying to save him. *fingers crossed* source

• 150 passengers stuck at one of D.C.’s busiest metro stations, Farragut North (it’s downtown)
• 90 minutes stuck on a freaking train during rush hour; scary, but nobody was injured at all
• three hours the government has been back at work since the snow shut it down for a week source

• This has been going on for more than four days now. I contacted my internet provider and they said it is out of their control.
• An anonymous Iranian whose internet is getting gummed up • Regarding his frustration with the Web. Iran has already shut down Gmail permanently – we blame Buzz – and has only been allowing limited access to the Web in the wake of the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution. Google confirmed that they’ve had a sharp drop in traffic from Iran this week. “Whenever we encounter blocks in our services we try to resolve them as quickly as possibly because we strongly believe that people everywhere should have the ability to communicate freely online,” Google wrote. “Sadly, sometimes it is not within our control.” source

• 19.5″ snow total at BWI  airport near Baltimore

• 14.0″ snow total at American University in the Upper Northwest part of the District
• 10.5″ snow total at Reagan National Airport, just south of the District in Arlington
• 9.3″ snow total at Dulles International Airport, west of the District in the ‘burbs source

• 100,000 number of wild tigers back in the heady days of 1990
• 3,200 tigers are left in the wild today; three sub-species are extinct source

• 15 number of Haitian children airlifted to U.S. hospitals each day before the Baptist missionaries were arrested
• three number of children airlifted daily now; other kids are getting held back due to paperwork issues source

• 87% added risk of pancreatic cancer for pop-drinkers source