Rabies Awareness Week

The Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association are reminding pet owners to keep their pets' rabies vaccinations up to date.  They say vaccinating pets against rabies helps keep their owners safe from rabies.

This week (September 24th-30th) has been deemed Rabies Awareness Week in Virginia.  Health officials say there are more than 500 cases of rabies in Virginia per year, almost always involving wild animals.  Because of the possibility of interaction between wild animals and family pets, all dogs and cats over four months of age are required to be vaccinated against rabies in Virginia.  The requirement includes indoor cats, as well.

Contact your veterinarian, local animal shelter or local health department for information on where to get your pet protected from rabies.

Read the release from the Virginia Department of Health

Teachers Get Free Admission to the VA Sports Hall of Fame October 6th

The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame is inviting teachers to check out their educational programs with a free Teacher Open House on Saturday, October 6th, from 10am to 5pm.

Teachers and one guest will receive free admission to tour the museum, which will be highlighting its new Math Academy.  Teachers will also get to meet the museum's education staff.

If you've never been to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, it's worth checking out.  Mary, Megan and I went a few years ago while Delaney was attending a birthday party at the Children's Museum.  We had a blast.

The museum is really hands on.  I shot three-pointers in a half-court gym alongside life-sized portraits of Virginia greats Moses Malone and Ralph Sampson.  They also have a pitching cage with radar gun.  The best I could do was 55mph; even when I'm playing baseball I can't bring myself to break the speed limit.  And prepare to be surprised by just how many names you recognize from sports that you never knew were Virginia natives.

Learn more about the Teacher Open House here.

You Can Use Coupons Retroactively

Have you ever gotten home from the store and later found a coupon that you could have used?  That was me on Monday, when I found a coupon worth $3.50 off if I spent more than $50 at Food Lion.  After mentally kicking myself, I realized it might be worth it to ask if I could cash in the coupon retroactively.  Turns out, it was.

I returned to the store the next day with the coupon and my receipt and asked the manager on duty if I could get credit for the coupon.  Three minutes later, I walked out of the store with a $3.50 credit on my credit card.

This is the second time I've cashed in a coupon after the fact; the first was a $10 coupon at OfficeMax.  This again shows that it doesn't hurt to ask.

Hampton Roads Sustainable Living Expo

Agencies from all over Hampton Roads will gather at the Virginia Beach Convention Center on Saturday, September 29th, for the 1st Annual Hampton Roads Sustainable Living Expo.  The event is presented by the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach Public Schools, and the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.

Sustainability refers to the steps that people, families, communities and governments can take to meet the needs of the present and future.  This means the three R's:  reduce, reuse and recycle.  It also means community design that minimizes environmental impact, storm water runoff, and resource usage.

For example, the school where my wife works, Virginia Beach Middle School, includes several sustainability designs.  School toilets are powered with storm water.  Storm water runoff is collected in rain gardens.  Computers are configured to automatically power-off after the school closes.  Room lights go on and off automatically.  Much of the interior lighting in the main hallway is provided by skylights.

The Expo is also an e-cycling event.  Electronics and appliances will be collected by TFC and Goodwill.

The Expo will be the focus of the September 23rd edition of my community affairs program, Hampton Roads Topics.

On the web:
www.hrsustainablelivingexpo.com

In the Shadow of Greatness

This week on Hampton Roads Topics, my public affairs program, I talk with Navy Lt. Commander Josh Welle, the creator of a new book. In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America's Longest War, is a compilation of stories from the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2002, and how the events of 9/11 affected their lives.

Welle, the 2002 Class President, compiled and co-edited the book. Following 9/11, he and his classmates faced the prospect of graduating from the Naval Academy and being deployed to Afghanistan as a result of the attacks. He speaks of September 11th as the glue for the narrative of what he calls the "9/11 Generation."

The book was released Tuesday on the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Demand for In the Shadow of Greatness has been very high on Amazon.com.

The interview will Sunday, September 16th, on these MAX Media stations:  92.9 The Wave, ESPN Radio 94.1, Star 1310 and 97.3 The Eagle.  A podcast of the interview will be posted next week on the show's blog,  hamptonroadstopics.blogspot.com

On the web:

shadowofgreatness.com

Open House at NASA Langley

Get a rare, behind the scenes look at NASA Langley Research Center later this month.  In observance of its 95th anniversary, the historic space research center in Hampton will host an open house on Saturday, September 22nd from 10am to 4pm.

According to a NASA media release, attendees will see some of NASA Langley's latest research, meet and talk with researchers, and take part in several hands-on demonstrations that sound suspiciously educational.

I would recommend a visit to NASA Langley, especially if you have school age kids.  My family and I attended the center's 90th anniversary open house in 2007.  A lot of it was directed at children.  Presenters showed us how to make slime from corn starch and food coloring.  We made paper airplanes.  And we saw dozens of computers testing new autopilot programs.

Also, the girls got photos made that showed what they would look like in space suits.  My wife took hers to school and, I'm not making this up, a few of her students actually asked if she had been to the moon.

Keep in mind that as you tour the various activities, you'll be visiting an area where some of NASA's most important space research has taken place.  Much of the training from the early days of the space program, from rendezvous in space (Project Gemini) to simulated landings on the moon (Project Apollo) took place at NASA Langley.  The landing procedure that got the Mars Curiosity rover safely to Mars in August was largely designed at NASA Langley.  The center is currently testing the prototype of the Orion crew capsule.

To learn more about NASA Langley's September 22nd open house, visit www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/events/95th-tour.html

The Walk for PKD

PKD, or Polycystic Kidney Disease, is the nation's most common life-threatening genetic disease, but it's also one of the least known.  David Damiani of the Tidewater Chapter of the PKD Foundation is working to change that.

PKD does not exhibit itself overtly; the damage it causes is entirely internal.  The condition causes cysts to grow in and on kidneys, leading them to grow in size but diminish in function.  Most people don't know they have it until the damage has been done.  For many, the ultimate "cure" for PKD is a kidney transplant.

Damiani became involved with the PKD Foundation when he discovered the wife of a friend had been diagnosed with PKD.  Her children could carry the gene as well.  PKD is carried by a dominate gene, meaning offspring of a PKD patient have a 50% chance of contracting the disease.

The Walk for PKD is a chance for the PKD Foundation to raise money for the cause of treating and (hopefully) curing the disease.  It's also a chance for Damiani to educate the public about this largely unknown disease.

The 2012 Walk for PKD will happen Saturday, November 3rd at 17th Street Park in Virginia Beach.  For information, visit www.WalkForPKD.org/Tidewater.

To hear my interview with David Damiani about PKD, visit the podcast page of my public affairs show, Hampton Roads Topics.

Tracking the Traffic

One of the many roles I've had at MAX Media over the years has been as a traffic reporter.  That role has evolved quickly, thanks in no small part to social media.

Being a traffic reporter is a multi-step process that includes collecting the information, highlighting the important stuff, preparing the report and delivering it on-air.  It's the collection phase that has changed the most.

Up until just recently, collecting traffic information involved making phone calls.  Phone calls to the dispatcher in every local city; phone calls to the various bridge tenders; phone calls to the tunnels and bridge-tunnels.  It was a lengthy process, taking almost an hour to complete a single call sheet.  That's because I could only make calls when I wasn't live on the air.

Today, much of that information is delivered automatically over the Internet.  When you hear me calling traffic on ESPN Radio 94.1, you can assume I swept through these websites before going on the air.

• totaltraffic.com/LocalTraffic/Norfolk -- Total Traffic, formerly Metro Traffic, is owned by Clear Channel Radio.  An office in the Washington D.C. area provides traffic info for several markets, including Hampton Roads.  This is usually where I find secondary street accidents and bridge opening information on the locally owned drawbridges.
• www.511virginia.org -- VDOT's traffic information page.  Its live traffic map includes access to the local network of traffic cameras, which are invaluable for helping drivers steer around slowdowns.
• twitter.com/511hamptonroads -- VDOT's Twitter feed.  This is about as up to the minute as you can get.
• trafficland.com/city/ORF/index.html -- A great collection of traffic cameras.  The most viewed cameras are listed at the top of the page.