UMD alert: Tornado “forecast to strike the campus” UPDATE: All clear

7:17 p.m.: The university just sent an “all-clear” text, but also said to “disregard further alerts for the time being.” Not sure why, but it could be to prevent people getting the alert texts out of order from misunderstanding the situation.

7:08 p.m.: The latest predicted tornado deadline has come and gone with no reports of any tornado activity. Still heavy rain, thunder. Capital Weather Gang still adamant that there isn’t a lot to worry about right now. We just received a report that the South Campus Dining Hall has stopped serving food but will not let students out.

6:59 p.m.: The Washington Post‘s Capital Weather Gang just tweeted “We are still unsure why sirens are sounding near UMD. There are NO active tornado warnings right now, and it’s been that way for some time.”

6:56 p.m.: Editor Kara Rose just tweeted that ShuttleUM, the campus bus system, has been shut down.

Students in the basement of La Plata Hall were told "this is not a drill" and to stay away from the windows.

6:51 p.m.: The campus emergency siren has gone off for the fourth time in 30 minutes, and the university as sent another text saying “A tornado is forecast to strike the campus within the next 10 minutes.”

In addition, Diamondback editor Kara Rose just tweeted “students not being let out of the dorms on #UMD campus. students of La Plata Hall are taking shelter in the basement. #tornado“

6:41 p.m.: The Washington Post just tweeted “Re: UMD warning questions. None active from NWS. Maybe some weak rotation crossing into NW DC, but again.. no current warnings in DC area.”

University Police spokesman Capt. Marc Limansky told staff writer Erin Egan that University Police sent the text alert after getting a warning from the AccuWeather data service that said a thunderstorm had evolved into a tornado, and that they considered it likely that the system would pass over the campus in the next few minutes.

6:33 p.m.: We’ll keep updating as information become available, but all we know right now is that the university just sent a text alert to students saying that “a tornado is forecast to strike the campus within the next 13 minutes. Seek shelter immediately.” It’s not clear how officials have predicted this.

In addition, the campus emergency siren went off at about 6:27 (and again at 6:35) , an hour after the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for Prince George’s County.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has very specific tornado instructions:

Go to a pre-designated shelter area such as a safe room, basement, storm cellar, or the lowest building level. If there is no basement, go to the center of an interior room on the lowest level (closet, interior hallway) away from corners, windows, doors, and outside walls. Put as many walls as possible between you and the outside. Get under a sturdy table and use your arms to protect your head and neck. Do not open windows.

You can also check out Campus Drive on Facebook and on Twitter at @theDBK.

Fun search results

Two search results that pointed people to Campus Drive today: “moon outside right now” and “frat armpits blog.” This makes us happy. That is all.

You should stop blaming alcohol for your idiot behavior, says British anthropologist

Innocent of all charges.

The BBC ran an online “Viewpoint” column yesterday in which social anthropologist Kate Fox explains that it is societal conditioning — not those 12 beers — that are making you act like a damn fool every Friday night. And Saturday night. And most Tuesdays.

The idea is that physically being drunk doesn’t make you behave any certain way — being drunk makes you behave in ways your society associates with being drunk. Fox uses the most British examples ever:

Our beliefs about the effects of alcohol act as self-fulfilling prophecies — if you firmly believe and expect that booze will make you aggressive, then it will do exactly that. …

In high doses, alcohol impairs our reaction times, muscle control, co-ordination, short-term memory, perceptual field, cognitive abilities and ability to speak clearly. But it does not cause us selectively to break specific social rules. It does not cause us to say, “Oi, what you lookin’ at?” and start punching each other. Nor does it cause us to say, “Hey babe, fancy a shag?” and start groping each other.

Campus convenience store briefly rendered inconvenient

"More or less."

By Spencer Israel
Staff writer

The 24 Shop, the new university convenience store in the Denton Community that never closes, closed yesterday.

Workers noticed the shop’s cash register screens had frozen around 3:30 p.m. They shut the doors and contacted their supervisor, and from there Dining Services technology support staff solved the problem remotely 5-7 minutes later, according to Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple.

College Park Lonely Hearts: Mustache rides, two girls one cup and a guy with a collection of body parts in his basement

College Park Lonely Hearts is a weekly special bringing you the most seductive dating website entries from the College Park area. The pictures are real, the user names are real, the descriptions are speculation. We hope this helps you find your special someone.

User name: ckringle9 (match.com)
Hobbies: Being incredulous, Master of Disguise
Exercise habits: Mustache rides
Currently listening to: Santana – “Samba Pa Ti“

MOON RAINBOW go outside right now

UPDATE, 12:37 a.m.: This story was updated to make the description of what was happening in the sky scientifically not wrong.

It’s cool, though it’s not technically a rainbow — we originally thought it was a moonbow (and then a moon dog), but it appears the technical term for what’s going on is “a ring around the Moon.” Some guy named Keith has extensive explanations of these phenomena on his website.

The collective genius of Wikipedia says this phenomenon is “caused by refraction of the light from the full moon in the ice particles floating in the clouds, as opposed to a rainbow, where light refracts in the water vapor that makes up the clouds.”

Students near South Campus Commons were overheard saying things like “whoa” and “holy shit,” and a quick check of social media yields descriptions like “awesomeee,” “sickk,” and, more curiously, “rings around moon bittersweet doom warm milk empty room turntable crackles mysterious tune.”

It is also, according to MSNBC, the smallest full moon of 2011. Go figure.

We’d have taken a picture of it for you, but it’s surprisingly difficult to photograph a dim, moonlight-based phenomenon with a mangled Blackberry. Go check it out for yourself — all those people standing in the road staring straight up? They’re having more fun than you are. GO! BE ALIVE!

From The Stacks: The most ’70s article we could find

From the front page of The Diamondback, Sept. 16, 1971:

HAIR LONG, PROFIT SHORT

Barber shops’ business cut sharply; girlfriends dictate long hair on men

By George Meurer

Long hair styles have cut into the barbering business in College Park.

Long hair and women are the reason.

“It stinks,” says Pete Wynnyk, a local barber, of barbering business in College Park.

“It’s the girls — they tell the boys not to get a haircut,” adds one of his assistants.

Wynnyk’s campus barber shop on Lehigh Road is in trouble. His assistant pleads, “Just please get a trim — we won’t cut it all off.”

University alum to compete on stupid reality show “Sweet Home Alabama”

We suspect she is up to something. Our money's on a one-episode exit. (Photo courtesy Country Music Television)

It’s every girl’s dream: A once-in-a-lifetime chance to compete on Country Music Television for the affections of a bartender.

Stefanie Williams, a 2008 graduate of this university and a former Diamondback opinion editor, will premiere on the second season of CMT’s “Sweet Home Alabama” on Oct. 20, according to a press release, and vie for the heart of one “Tribble Reese” with 19 other women. No joke. That’s the guy’s name.

The release says that “while Stefanie love sports, she’s has had a few rough experiences in dating athletes and is looking to branch out.” Don’t let that word “few” mislead you — Williams has quite literally written the book on dating athletes and maintains an extensive daily blog about sports and dating that uses a lot of capital letters and curse words.