The 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Virginia August 23 rattled people across the East Coast both mentally and physically. The quake could be felt from Charleston, SC, to Martha’s Vineyard with an estimated 12 million people living close enough to feel it. New York’s JFK Airport and Newark Airport were evacuated. Flights were grounded at Dulles and in Philadelphia. The Pentagon and White House were evacuated. San Diego geologist Pat Abbott said quakes are felt more intensely on the East Coast because the rocks there are older and denser. “The rocks here are younger more fractured and earthquake energy dies down more rapidly,” he said. “We go to the East Coast where a lot of those rocks are hundreds of millions of years old and billions of years old they are very, very hard and they transmit the energy very well.” According to Abbott, an identical earthquake hit in Whittier, CA in 1987 but it wasn’t felt as widely because of younger, weaker rocks that absorb energy. He said the bottom line is that people on the East Coast simply aren't used to quakes.
http://www.wtkr.com/news/kswb-east-coast-vs-west-coast-quakes-20110823,0,2451367.story

The earthquake affected some major sites and landmarks. The U.S. Capitol was cleared for employees to come back to get their belongings, but inspectors asked people to limit their time inside the building while engineers continue to work around the complex. A secondary inspection of the Washington Monument revealed some cracking in the stones at the top of the monument, the National Park Service said. Structural engineers will evaluate the cracks on Wednesday to determine the best way to repair the 126-year-old obelisk before it is reopened. The monument grounds have been reopened except for an area about 100 feet outside of the plaza. The National Cathedral will be closed to the public August 24 after three of the four corner spires on its central tower cracked and fell onto the roof. The Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington has cracks in the interior walls because of the earthquake, but there's no indication of structural damage at this point, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/23/quake.landmarks.developments/

The epicenter of the earthquake, Mineral in central Virginia was once called Tolersville. But the discovery of pyrite, sulfur, lead and other minerals turned it into a booming little town, and by 1902 it was incorporated and named after the only thing anybody knew it for. “It’s a small town. It’s a pretty tough town; the mining and all,” said Edwin Keller, 60, who grew up in Mineral, was mayor for 12 years and is also a former fire chief for the town. “But real friendly and good people.” Mr. Keller says there are about 450 people living in Mineral proper. (Don’t mention the people with Mineral addresses over in the nearby Lake Anna area. “They want to be Mineral,” Mr. Keller said. “But I will fight that.”) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/25mineral.html

Sarah Van Aken has long had a passion for designing beautiful, functional, organic clothes. Her Philadelphia-based design house, SA VA, is comprised of four private-apparel brands: Van Aken custom shirts, Van Aken Signature custom hospitality uniforms, VA Private Label garment-manufacturing services and SA VA women’s ready-to-wear. “Each of the brands integrates high-design aesthetic and quality construction with socially consciousness business practices and community building,” explains Van Aken, a Philadelphia native who in 2008 partnered with local businessman Wayne Zukin, who funded the operation. “We strongly believe in local job creation, using sustainable and recycled raw materials, community partnerships, and producing all of the products in our Philadelphia Garment Center.” Her concept is a hit. The staff at the Gotham Bar & Grill, River Park, Aureole, Rouge Tomate, and the Fontainebleau Hotel wears the Van Aken Signature line of clothes and custom hospitality uniforms. Other clients include Vs. The Earth, a rock band based in Washington, DC., and Deviant Jeans. Van Aken’s flagship store and design studio, which is located at 1700 Sansom Street in downtown Philadelphia, is adjacent to her garment center. All of her fabrics are fair-trade, and many are eco-friendly and made in the United States. “As a company, we are really trying to consider every aspect of the garment — from how and whom it was made by, where it was made, what it was made with, how it is sold to our customers, and what happens when our customers are finished with a garment,” Van Aken explains. To this end, she has incorporated the following key operations into SA VA: Creating local jobs: In the next couple of years, Van Aken plans to create living-wage jobs in Philadelphia for 22 staff members. Low environmental impact: She is also determined to reduce by half the carbon footprint of SA VA by manufacturing her garments in Philadelphia. While her clothes were initially made in Bangladesh, every SA VA garment is now made at her Philadelphia factory. She also uses reclaimed fixtures in her store, recycled paperhangers, and compostable shopping bags.
http://trulyamazingwomen.com/the-women/fashion-designer-sarah-van-aken

List of truly amazing women who are changing the world http://trulyamazingwomen.com/the-women

See the values of these prefixes: yotta zetta exa peta tera giga mega kilo hecto deca deci centi milli micro nano pico femto atto zepto yocto. You will also find links to metric conversions at: http://www.simetric.co.uk/siprefix.htm

Jiffy is an informal term for any unspecified short period of time, as in "I'll be back in a jiffy". From this it has acquired a number of more precise applications for short, very short, or extremely short periods of time. The earliest technical usage for jiffy was defined by Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946). He proposed a unit of time called the "jiffy" which was equal to the time it takes light to travel one centimetre (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds). It has since been redefined for different measurements depending on the field of study. Read about its uses in electronics, computing and physics at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiffy_%28time%29