A powerful earthquake struck northeastern Myanmar on Thursday night, killing one woman and shaking buildings as far away as Bangkok. No tsunami was generated. The quake hit in an area where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet, about 70 miles from Chiang Rai. The northern Thai city sustained minor damage, according to Thai television. A woman in an area north of Chiang Rai, just two miles from the border, died when a brick wall collapsed on her, according to police Capt. Weerapon Samranjai. The 6.8 magnitude quake was just six miles deep, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. At that strength and depth, it said 600,000 people could feel shaking anywhere from strong to violent. It added that since buildings in the area are considered vulnerable, damage could be widespread. “It was like somebody was running on the roof. Everybody was in a panic. They came out of their houses and wondered what happened,” said Maj. Gen. Mongkol Sampawapon, a police chief from another district near Chiang Rai. In another northern Thai city, people ran into the streets in their pajamas, according to footage on Thai TBS television. There were no immediate reports of damage from the Myanmar side, a remote area where communications, even in the best of times, are difficult. The country’s military-controlled government also tightly controls information. Buildings swayed in Bangkok, about 480 miles south of the epicenter. Max Jones, an Australian resident of the Thai capital, was in his 27th-floor apartment when his building started shaking so hard he had to grab the walls to keep from falling. “It was bloody scary, I can tell you,” he said. Jones said he could see people running in the streets. The quake was followed by two smaller aftershocks, 4.8 and 5.4 in magnitude. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake was located too far inland to create a destructive wave.

It seems these days that so many people out there are trying desperately to be somebody, but I can’t help to wonder if it’s really so bad to just want to be me…
In times of loss there appears to be a lingering clarity of the mind, one that has the potential to help you see the type of life you want to lead. This happened with the passing of my grandmother back in June and I’m feeling that same sense again this week after attending another family funeral service.
Too often people live their lives for others – and I’m not referring to those who spend their days devoted to their families. Those who choose that path have found great satisfaction and fulfillment in committing to a partner and raising a happy, healthy family. This is nothing but admiral in my book.
What I mean is, we seem to be in an age where everyone wants to be famous – to be known for being the best in their field. Whether it’s skydiving or BASE jumping or their career, everyone wants to be the expert, and they want the world to know it and praise them for it. There are even people who are willing to become someone else, to take on a persona, in order to gain that publicity. I can’t help but wonder what’s so wrong with being yourself.
(Note: for some who haven’t been following along, I may appear hypocritical here, as I’ve been criticized in the past for trying to be “THE Skydive Chick.” But for any who know me, you’ll know I’m far from an expert and am here simply to share my thoughts and opinions, in the skydiving world and beyond. And please, call me Ashley.)
I know I’ve discussed this before in the context of skydiving, but I’m a big believer in embracing who you are. This isn’t to say that you can’t spend your days trying to become a better person, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice what you believe in, and live a life that’s not completely supportive of those beliefs in order to become someone that others can look up to. It just seems to me that there are more people out there trying to be someone that they’re not so that others will talk about them and know who they are, rather than embracing who they are and living their lives for themselves.
Maybe that makes me different, not wanting to be all famous and stuff. We’ve all been asked that question: “if you could be rich or famous, which would you choose?” and hands down I’d choose rich. Who wouldn’t love to have all the money they want at their disposal. Fun trips, as much skydiving as you want, being able to work because it’s something you truly love doing rather than for the need of the paycheck, or even spending your free time volunteering. At the end of the day, you’ve lived your life for you, helped others where you can and you get to go home and live your life peacefully. Sounds pretty fab, right?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to judge. If people want to be known, to spend their lives striving to prove that they are the person they want everyone to think they are, then more power to them. As long as you’re not hurting me or those that I love along the way, you’ve got my thumbs up. But I do think there’s something to be said for living life on your own terms. Being who you want to be. Finding and living up to your own values. That seems like the epitome of a fulfilling life.
Then again, I’m just a 20-something skydiver trying to live my life with passion and understanding while sharing my thoughts with y’all over here in my little corner of the Universe – what do I know?
So I pose the question to y’all, is there something so wrong about just wanting to be me?
Love and Blue Skies!
Ashley

The Bottom Line
Effective atmospherics don’t rescue this formulaic slasher flick.

Cast
Michael Biehn, Alexandra Daddario, Brett Rickaby, John Savage
Director-screenwriter
Steven Mena

Featuring enough gratuitous gore and half-nude female victims to satisfy the core horror audience, Bereavement offers little of interest to anyone else. Steven Mena’s sequel of sorts to his well regarded Malevolence is certainly more stylishly filmed and technically accomplished than many others of its ilk, but the final result is a reasonably ordinary slasher film.

Set in rural Pennsylvania (evocatively photographed in suitably barren style by D.P. Marco Cappetta), the film depicts the serial killings of beautiful young women by Graham Sutter (Brett Rickaby), a crazed recluse who lives in an abandoned slaughterhouse that is a perfect environment for his particular obsession.

Five years earlier, he had kidnapped six-year-old Martin (Spencer List), who possesses a genetic abnormality that prevents him from feeling physical pain. The young boy serves as his accomplice for his nefarious deeds, in a sort of depraved mentoring relationship.

A parallel storyline concerns recently orphaned seventeen-year-old Allison (Alexandra Daddario, recently seen in Percy Jackson and the Olympians and as the flirtatious babysitter in Hall Pass), who comes to live with her Uncle Jonathan (Michael Biehn) and his wife (Kathryn Meisle) and young daughter. She quickly strikes up a flirtation with a motorcycle-riding bad boy (Nolan Gerard Funk) who lives with his partially paralyzed father (John Savage).

When Allison spots young Martin in a window of the slaughterhouse, her suspicions are raised, leading to the inevitable violent showdown in which more than a few of the characters meet untimely fates.

Mena, who also scripted, clearly intends for the film to have deeper thematic resonance than the usual slasher flick, with its depictions of dysfunctional families and such digressions as a classroom discussion about the significance of nature vs. nurture.

But the film is ultimately all too familiar in its horror movie plot mechanics and the near pornographic depictions of the killer’s repeated knife thrusts into his well-endowed female victims.

Despite its effectively spooky atmospherics and the good performances by the better than average cast, Bereavement is ultimately no cause for celebration. 

Opens: March 18 (Crimson Films)Production: Aurilia Arts ProductionsCast: Michael Biehn, Alexandra Daddario, Brett Rickaby, John Savage, Nolan Gerard Funk, Spencer List, Kathryn Meisle, Valentina De AngelisDirector/screenwriter/producer/editor/music: Steven MenaExecutive producer: Vincent ButtaDirector of photography: Marco CappettaProduction designer: Jack RyanCostume designer: Charlotte KruseRated R, 103 mins.

The secret’s out — Natasha Henstridge finally said, “I do”!
After a four-year relationship, a three-year engagement and a brief split in January, the actress and British actor Darius Campbell tied the knot an intimate Valentine’s Day ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara.
“No one knew we were there and that sense of it just being for us was very exciting — felt a little bit naughty and secretive,” Darius told the UK’s Hello! magazine.
“We didn’t tell our parents for a few days afterwards,” Natasha added. “We wanted to be together and enjoy it for awhile. It was really spontaneous.”
While friends and parents weren’t in attendance, the couple did invite two young guests: The actress’ two sons from a previous relationship, Tristan, 12, and Asher, 9.
“We thought they wouldn’t be bothered but they were super-excited and really wanted to be there,” she said. “They kept it secret—I was very impressed.”
Congratulations to the newlyweds!

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Posted on Thu, Mar. 10, 2011

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s statistics on Marcellus Shale natural-gas activity contain serious flaws and inconsistencies, and do not accurately report the volume of wastewater being reused in the industry’s much-touted recycling efforts.
The DEP’s most recent statewide statistics on wastewater production overstate by nearly two times the amount of wastewater produced during the last six months of 2010 largely because one of the 39 operators who filed reports last month inadvertently entered the wrong data in its forms.
Seneca Resources Corp. says it mistakenly reported the number of gallons of wastewater it generated as barrels. A barrel contains 42 gallons, so Seneca’s numbers were hugely inflated. And so was the amount of water that it reportedly recycled.
As a result, the 5.2 million barrels of waste that Seneca misstated in the reports accounted for half the entire state’s volume of 10.6 million barrels, though Seneca produced only about 3 percent of the Marcellus Shale natural gas extracted during that six-month period.
“It was in fact stated as barrels when it was actually gallons,” said Nancy J. Taylor, a spokeswoman for the company, a subsidiary of National Fuel Gas Co. of Houston. She said the employee who misstated the number was “mortified” to learn of the error.
Seneca’s actual wastewater numbers amounted to about 125,000 barrels. The statewide total has been revised down to about 5.5 million barrels of wastewater.
The miscue couldn’t have come at a worse time for the industry and the Pennsylvania DEP. On Monday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency put Harrisburg on notice that the EPA would increase its scrutiny of how Pennsylvania managed shale-drilling wastewater after news media reported that inadequately treated Marcellus wastewater may be polluting the state’s rivers.
“Obviously we’re under the microscope whatever we do now,” said Kathryn Z. Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group.
The episode also raises questions about the DEP’s ability to process the data generated by the fast-growing industry, since Seneca’s reporting errors should have been obvious to any knowledgeable analyst who waded through a 5,000-line spreadsheet that the agency posted on its website two weeks ago.
DEP officials did not respond Wednesday to questions about how the agency failed to notice the bad numbers. Seneca reported one of its wells produced more than 500,000 barrels of wastewater – 22 million gallons – an amount that would typically be generated by dozens of Marcellus wells.
“It is too early to draw any definitive conclusions or interpretations about the data being filed,” said Kevin Sunday, an agency spokesman. “We are still in the process of receiving and reviewing production data.”
John Hanger, who stepped down as DEP secretary in January when Gov. Corbett took office, said the agency was overwhelmed with data in November when he authorized the DEP to hire six new administrative employees to help address weaknesses in the agency.
“There’s just an enormous amount of data being submitted, and it would be fair to say that DEP data processing is not where it should be,” he said.
Industry officials said the problem was compounded because the detailed production and waste reports were mandated by a law that went into effect last year, and both the regulators and the industry are struggling to adapt.
There seem to be many inconsistencies in how operators report the wastewater – some is listed as brine, some as drilling fluid, and some as “frac fluid,” the liquids that flow back after hydraulic fracturing, the process for extracting gas from tight rock layers such as shale.
The reports have been closely reviewed by the public and the media partly to gauge how the massive volumes of toxic wastewater generated by Marcellus drilling is being managed.
Marcellus wastewater contains corrosive salts and some radioactive isotopes and metals that naturally occur in the deep formation where the gas resides. It also contains some chemicals used during the fracturing process.
While the industry initially sent much of the fluid to public sewage-treatment plants that are not designed to treat drilling wastes, the state has responded by restricting discharges. The industry has ramped up efforts to recycle the wastewater, reducing the need for treatment and discharge.
Before the Seneca error was discovered, the industry reported recycling about 6 million of 10.6 million barrels of wastewater during the last half of 2010 – about 57 percent of the total.
But Seneca’s inflated numbers represented about 5.2 million barrels of the recycled water. So when its numbers are revised downward, the total volume of wastewater reported recycled falls to 17 percent.
The DEP and the industry still maintain that at least 70 percent of all wastewater is being recycled by blending it into new hydraulic fracturing operations.
They say the waste reports are not comprehensive accounts of recycling, but of waste disposal. But there are inconsistencies – some operators report waste that is reused; others say their recycling efforts are not counted in the reports.
“The system was intended to track wastewater and not recycled water,” said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources Corp., one of the largest Marcellus producers, which says it recycles nearly 90 percent of its wastewater, though those numbers are not reflected in the reports.
Considering the scrutiny the industry faces, Pitzarella said Wednesday that Range was calling for a new reporting system that accounts for recycled wastewater.
“The current system was developed at a time prior to widespread recycling and reuse,” he said. He said the company was calling on the DEP and the Marcellus Shale Coalition to “develop a transparent and accessible system that tracks water that is recycled and reused.”
 
Contact staff writer Andrew Maykuth at 215-854-2947 or amaykuth@phillynews.com.

Chloe Marshall Sweet 16 headed to Miss England 2008
Chloe Marshall of the UK has just won the Miss Surrey 2008 beauty pageant. She is now advancing towards the Miss England contest, which is opened to females ages 17-24. If Chloe Marshall can win the Miss England 2008 pageant, she will advance to the Miss