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The Lion’s Eye February 19, 2010
Eve on World & Local
Snowmageddon:
The Blizzard of 2010
By Nancy Perone
Lion's Eye World & Local News Editor
nip5014@psu.edu
Photo courtesy of http://patdollard.com/wp-content/
uploads/2009/12/12-26-staten-island-blizzard.jpg
Snowpocalypse, SMG (Snow-My-God!), or President
Obama’s favorite “Snowmageddon” —are all names for the
record setting snowfall and blizzard conditions that struck the
Northeastern United States a week before Valentine’s Day 2010.
The big mess started its first round on February 5th, with a
weekend storm that kept most of Delaware County cozy in their
homes on Saturday night. The snow accumulations from that
storm were approximately 28.5 inches recorded at Philadelphia
More Kaizen Needed
with Toyota
By Nancy Perone - Lion's Eye World & Local News Editor -nip5014@psu.edu
Kaizen is a Japanese word, and when translated it means “continuous improvement”.
This is a philosophy that Toyota adopted long before all of its recalls began, but they’ll be mak-
ing use of it now more than ever. Toyota voluntarily recalled its 2010 Prius on February 8th of
this year, stating an “update was needed to the anti-lock brake system.”
This hasn’t been the first that we’ve heard of Toyota recalling its cars in the past 5
months. In October of 2009, Toyota issued a recall of over 4.2 million cars because of pedals
getting stuck under floor mats in certain cars. Whether or not this truly was the problem, we’ll
never know because nearly four months later another recall was announced.
This time, eight of its popular car models were included in the recall, adding to the car
industry’s already bleak year of sales in 2009. Late in January, Toyota suspended sales on its
2009-2010 RAV4, Corolla, and Matrix; its 2010 Highlander; 2005-2010 Avalon; 2007-2010
Camry; 2008-2010 Sequoia; and its 2007-2010 Tundra. The issue this time, accelerator pedals
that stick making the driver unable to stop, an obvious hazard while driving. Safety Research
& Strategies, a consumer-advocacy group that specializes in motor vehicle issues, records that
since 1999 approximately 26 deaths, 819 crashes, and 2, 262 cases of unintended acceleration
have occurred in these Toyota models.
It is very important that Toyota owners don’t panic and press hard on their brake ped-
als if they find themselves accelerating without warning. Step by step instructions are posted on
Toyota’s recall website, www.toyota.com/recall/pedal.html. Drivers should:
. Brake, but don’t pump brakes
. Shift the transmission gear into neutral
. Slowly, make your way to the side of the road
ok Turn your engine off
Reuters reports that the founder’s grandson and president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda,
wants to use another philosophy —one of its five—as a means to regain loyal Toyota customers
“back. “With myself taking the lead, and by keeping to the ‘genchi genbutsu’ principle, all of us
~ at Toyota will tackle the issue in close cooperation with dealers and suppliers together, we will
International Airport.
While Pennsylvanians incurred 160, 000 power out-
ages because of the storm, a disaster emergency was declared
by Governor Ed Rendell. In comparison to the Jersey shore
and Delaware, Pennsylvania really dodged an icy blast. Frozen,
snow caked power lines failed, leaving Cape May and Atlantic
County residents in the dark until Monday. NBC Philadelphia
reports that 90, 000 power outages were reported in South Jer-
sey alone, with 61,000 in just Cape May County.
Scenes played out on local news stations of mass snow
do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers,” said Toyoda at a press
conference. “Genchi genbutsu” is translated as “go and see.”
In an effort to improve its steadily declining PR image, Toyoda also wrote an op/ed in
the Washington Post stating how Toyota was dealing with all of its issues. Japan isn’t by itself
in trying to clean up the company’s image. Jim Lentz, President and Chief Operating Officer of
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. issued a statement entitled “Toyota’s Pledge To You” telling
customers that, “We know we need to do better. We are committed to doing just that.” Needless
to say plenty of continuous improvement will be needed to dig Toyota out of the recall grave it
dug itself into. To see if your vehicle has been affected, please visit www.toyota.com/recall.
ball fights in places like Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia and
even in our nation’s capital Washington, D.C. There, the snowstorm didn’t stop
the Democratic Party’s Winter Meeting on Saturday, February 6th. It was during
the Winter Meeting that the President commented on supporters from California
who weren’t used to the conditions and coined the phrase “Snowmageddon” in
reference to the storm that seemingly shut down Washington, D.C. Over 300,
000 homes electricity was lost in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area due to
fallen trees and power lines, the BBC reports.
Just when we thought the biggest snow storm since the blizzard of 1996
was over and power restored, another began on the evening of Tuesday, February
9th. This time, while all of the same Northeastern states were affected, mother
nature included the North-Western parts of Pennsylvania and New York. This
storm, an additional 2 feet of the fluffy stuff in some areas, wasn’t so fluffy.
Meteorologists confirmed that this snow was denser and wetter —prime snowball
making material but also extremely dangerous. NBC Philadelphia meteorolo-
gist Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz issued a warning in a video, Wednesday, on
their website that roof collapses would happen because of the snows weight and
because of the layer of sleet that fell in between snowfalls. Nearly an additional
20 inches of snow fell on Philadelphia and surrounding areas, something unheard
of, and also something that was deemed unlikely to happen in the same century.
Washington, D.C., the United States government, and many major road-
ways closed down because of treacherous conditions. SEPTA, BART, and NJ
Transit cancelled bus service and the Philadelphia International Airport cancelled
flights. The city of Philadelphia was declared closed Thursday after the storm for
snow removal. PECO Energy reported 120, 000 outages in its service area as a
result of the storm. The National Weather Service said record snow totals of 71.6
inches were reached for our entire winter season so far, thus beating the Blizzard
of 1996 which totaled 65.5 inches
Not heeding the warning from “Hurricane”, the Smithsonian Institute
~ National Air and Space Museum was even affected by the second Nor Easter.
Part of the Air and Space Museum's storage building in Maryland collapsed but
with no reported damages or injuries. Perhaps the real victory of the 2010 storm
was not for the pre-blizzard ambushed grocery stores or for the folks in the snow
removal business, but for area children as most public and parochial schools
closed.
Haiti's Orphans Still Survive
By Tiffany R-Morris - Lions Eye Staff Writer - tjir5073@psu.edu
As the Haiti relief effort continues, humanitarians give pause to the
growing concern for the islands Orphans. According to United Nations Chil-
dren Fund (UNICEF) more than 300,000 children were affected by the earth-
| quake. Currently, adoptive agencies around the world are flying out as many
Haitian children as they can. The Associated Press reports that countries ac-
cepting orphans are among Europe, Canada, and the US.
Before the earthquake, many families filed for adoption with several
Haiti orphanages. Therefore, families have turned to their governments and
humanitarian organizations for help getting out to the children. Los Angeles
native and adoptive mother, Allison Garwood, spoke out in a CNN article, stat- .
ing "The U.S. needs to not only allow but demand that children be sent to their
adoptive families right away." : or
The call was heard and Haitian children have been arriving in the US
for the past month. According to the Associated Press, “more than 50 children,
most of whom already have adoptive families waiting for them, arrived in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.” The article continues to report that children, with
relatives living in the US, were next to arrive.
The effort still continues, but with buildings reduced to rubble and
Haiti’s adoption officials missing, the battle to rescue all of Haiti’s children
wanes. In CNN's interview with Dixie Bickel, director of God's Littlest An-
gels orphanage just outside Port-au-Prince, he states "I would like to see the
international community come up with a plan for the children that have been
adopted.” With that said, God’s Little Angels’ website has posted that the gov-
ernment has closed all adoptions until further notice.
To donate to the Haiti relief effort: Please visit Student Affairs, Second Floor
Commons Building -- All Donations Help!