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Show .THE Thursday, June 28, 2007 DAILY UTAH CHRONICLE Crews fighting Tahoe wildfire find relief as high winds hold off flames for a few hours SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.—Firefighters racing the weather for control of a turbulent wildfire near this popular resort got a bit of a break Wednesday as high winds forecast to arrive by early afternoon held off, giving crews time to shore up their defenses. Forecasters were still expecting the wind to pick up later in the day, but the extra few hours of calm allowed firefighters to fortify their lines, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Tom Efird said. They were trying to keep the wildfire from consuming more buildings near the small town of Meyers where it started, and from reaching several densely populated subdivisions near where one flank of the blaze jumped a containment line. The fire has destroyed 200 homes since it emerged over the weekend. "The worst-case scenario is the fire would break out in multiple locations," said Rich Hawkins, a U.S. Forest Service fire commander. "The biggest problem is just that there are so many homes in a combustible environment." The governors of the two states Lake Tahoe straddles, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nevada's Jim Gibbons, toured neigh- Tim Pettitt with the National Interagency Fire Center checks his radio connection while installing a Remote Automatic Weather Station hlgh.above the Angora lire Wednesday, June 27, in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. borhoods charred by the fire. Examining the remains of a house in the Tahoe Mountain neighborhood, just outside South Lake Tahoe, the ex-bodybuilder Schwarzenegger hoisted a dumbbell from the debris, marveling that it was one of the few objects to survive. "Amazing," he told an aide. Little else survived the inferno. Metal mattress coils, a bicycle, tools, half-melted televisions, concrete foundations and chimneys were about all that was left of the burned houses. Some neighboring buildings stood virtually untouched. "It could have been much worse, if we hadn't had such well-trained firefighters," said Schwarzenegger, mentioning his decision in May to free up more money for firefighters and equipment after the dry Winter. California's insurance commissioner, citing figures from the El Dorado County sheriff's department, pegged the total property damage at $150 million. Hundreds of homes within view of the lake remained under mandatory evacuation orders, while residents of already damaged areas were still being asked to stay away. Many returned anyway _ at least long enough to stuff more belongings into cars and trucks before leaving again. Others came back and camped out, readying garden hoses and even buckets to douse embers expected to land nearby if winds kicked up as expected. In all, about 2,000 people were evacuated, according to South Lake Tahoe Police Lt. Martin Hale. The blaze has charred more than 3,000 acres—about 4.7 square miles— and was 44 percent contained on Wednesday, fire officials said. With stiffer gusts in the forecast, officials acknowledged that more homes, including some in the most affluent waterfront neighborhoods, could be threatened. Several officials said the wind could also present a danger to firefighters themselves. "It really is hard to predict what these winds are going to do," said Kelly Martin, a fire behavior analyst who addressed hundreds of firefighters from across the state at a predawn briefing Wednesday. Officials thought they had a handle on the original edge of the blaze on Tuesday, but a surprisingly big gust of wind in the afternoon was all it took to push firefighters off the line they had held for more than a day outside a 300-home subdivision. It was in an area where firefighters had set a fire the night before in an effort to keep the main blaze from reaching more houses and Lake Tahoe itself. The gust blew embers from the burn area over thefireUneand started new spot fires, Hawkins said. The blaze descended so quickly that two firefighters were forced to deploy the emergency shelters they carry to protect themselves as a last resort. They were unhurt but would have died without the shelters, Hawkins said. The Associated Press World's fastest supercomputer powers up U. Texas Flames spread rapidly Zachary Posner 15,000 home PCs." He said the supercomputer will be operating at peak performance of about 500 teraflops, which means it will be able to AUSTIN, Texas—The four-year ten- complete about 500 trillion calculations ure of Ranger, which is predicted to be per second. The world's current largest the largest and fastest supercomputer in computer, IBM's Blue Gene, hits 327 terathe world, will begin at the University flops, according to T0p500.org. UT's curof Texas' J.J. Pickle Research Campus on rent supercomputer, Lonestar, ranks 12th New Year's Day 2008. Sun Microsystems, on the list. the company partnering with UT on the Other notable features of Ranger are project, introduced their technology at a its 62,976 CPU cores, 125 terabytes of supercomputing conference in Germany memory and 1.7 terabytes of disk space. on Tuesday. Last September, the National Science "A typical computer has one proces- Federation awarded $59 million to a team sor," said Tommy Minyard, assistant di- led by the Texas Advanced Computing rector of the Texas Advanced Computing Center and Sun Microsystems, along with Center at Pickle, where the Ranger will Cornell and Arizona State Universities, be stored. "We will be installing close to construct, operate and maintain the to 15,000. It will be like we are installing supercomputer for four years. When the DAILY TEXAN UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS Haue a FRNTRSTIC idea fora Student Group? Manatee Lovers Anonymous (The Platonic Kind of Love) I have no time for homework Because I'm in college. Star Wars > Girls? The Great Question Persists. My teeth are staining with every sip, but I just can't stop: A Coffee Addict Support Group. "Why start a student group, when I already have a group on facebook?" - Debate Club. Registration is easy. No matter the type of group. Come in to ASUU Room 234 in the Union 581-2788 Finance/Bd aril I ASUU»Associated Students of the University of Utah four years are up, UT can decide whether to pay to keep Ranger going!"UT can continue to operate if they wish," said Minyard. "Hopefully we will apply for an upgrade or expansion to the system." Unlike BlueGene, Ranger will be open to the scientific community. However, 5 percent of the time will be designated for institutions in Texas. J. Tinsley Oden, director of the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, which has partnered as the lead on the project, said the computer will help with a spectrum of research topics, including simulations of the human body, earthquakes and drug treatments, as well as large mathematical computations. "Access to a computer of this size will dramatically change what we do," he said. U-Wire in Utah County fire Kirsten Swenson spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management, told The Salt Lake Tribune. PROVO, Utah—FirefightNo homes have been damers are working to extinguish aged and no injuries reportflames that have been burn- ed. The fire has only daming since Sunday in west aged a few power lines. Utah County. The flames Multiple fires have broken have destroyed more than out around Utah, including 1,000 acres on Lake Moun- one on Sunday near Covered tain and continued to burn Bridge in Spanish Fork Canthrough Monday afternoon. yon that burned at least 100 Six air tankers were acres. Firefighters hoped to dumping fire retardant on contain that fire sometime the flames from early Mon- Monday. Three other fires have started across the state day morning. "That is definitely been in the past week. helping us," Teresa Rigby, U-Wire THE DAILY UNIVERSE Dust destroys Colorado snowpack From Staff Reports the sun's energy to warm the snowpack and cause it to melt earlier. "The connection between BOULDER, Colo.—A new dust and lower snow reflecstudy spearheaded by the tance is already established, University of Colorado at but the amount of impact meaBoulder's National Snow sured and modeled in this sysand Ice Data Center inditem stunned us," said Painter. cates wind-blown dust from "The fact that dust can reduce drought-stricken and dissnow cover duration so much turbed lands in the South— a month earlier — transwest can shorten the duraforms our understanding of tion of mountain snow cover mountain sensitivity to exterhundreds of miles away in nal forcings." the Colorado mountains by While just three or four significant dust deposition events occurred annually in the San Juan Mountains be. .MAGIC: T1M£ SPIRAL . . GAMES WORKSHOP.. tween 2003 and 2005, eight , ROLE-PLAYING GAMES . . ONLINE COMPUTER GAMING. occurred in 2006, according to the authors. In 2006, the subalpine regions of the San Juans melted out 24 to 35 days earlier than previous, relatively dust-free years, according to ground measurements and computer simulations. 6T08B U0U8S. MOH-THUH* 1UMTO 10PM - FRIDAY 11AM TO MIDNIGHT A paper on the subject was SATURDAY* 10AM TO MIDNIGHT • BUNDAYi NOON TO 5PM published online June 23 in ;ry Geophysical Research Letters. SANCTIONED MAGIC TOURNAMENTS Co-authors on the study in«83 IS. STATE, SALT LAKCITT cluded CU-Boulder's Andrew PHONE) 801J5MM5 OB UI77.HMTTOS Barrett, Jason Neff, Maureen WWVJUSrVBH0BBffiS.COM Cassidy, Corey Lawrence and WORLD OF WAftCHAFT CARD GAME Lang Farmer, as well as ChrisMAGIC TIME SPIRAL topher Landry from the CenSETTLERS OF CATAN TICKET TO RIDE GAME ter for Snow and Avalanche MAGIC* ILLUSIONS NEW COMICS EVERY WEDNE5DAY Studies in Silverton, Colo., and Kathleen McBride of Northern Arizona University. The Colorado Plateau is centered in the Four Corners region of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and covers an area of roughly 130,000 square miles. Prior to the widespread ecological disturbance of the Western U.S. in the late 1980s, the high mountain snow would have likely lasted several weeks longer in most regions, according to the researchers. "Recent studies agree that Officers provide security and protection for air travelers, airports and aircraft. with global warming, the Southwest will be warmer and Part-Time: Starting at $12.74 per hour Plus Benefits drier," said Painter. "Enhanced (Includes 12.64% I^ocalll) Pay) dust deposition is likely, furMinimum Requirements: U.S. Citizenship or U.S. National ther shortening snow cover • High school diploma, GED or equivalent, or one year of security or duration. Ultimately, a warmaviation screening experience * English proficiency ing climate and \ the dust it • Prc-cmploymcnt medical evaluation • Pass a background/credit check generates will affect river Please apply online at: run-off and soil moisture in www.tsaj obs.com the mountains, not only in 1-800-887-1895 the Western United States but TTY: 1-800-887-5506 across many of the world's Transportation Security mountains." TSA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Administration U-Wire COLORADO DAILY UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO NEW PRODUCTS: roughly a month. Led by Tom Painter, the study found seasonal snow coverage in the sub-alpine and alpine areas of the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado disappeared by about 30 days earlier in 2006 because of heavy dust deposition from the Colorado Plateau roughly 200 miles away. The dust, which probably came from northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico deserts, reduced the snow's reflectivity, allowing more of |