A BBQ Knockout Punch Awaits You at Bubba's in Fishtown | Food ...

You know the running joke in the old Looney Toons cartoons, the one with Pep? Le Pew swooning over a passing female?s aroma contrails? That?s kind of what happened to me as I walked toward the front door of Bubba?s Texas BBQ recently. First came the hint of smoke in the air; then a pungent whiff of something more meaty; and finally, when I opened the door, the smell of Texas BBQ in all its heady glory, like a new line of colognes: Caveman, by Calvin Klein.?

This is the latest entry into our city?s ever-sprouting crop of smoke- and fire-cooked meateries, a Lone Star bar with ample TVs, straightforward decor and one serious smoker.?

And that, really, is what matters most here: The meat, and the manner in which it?s cooked. ?

This is the way of all flesh here: a stint, ranging from two to 30 hours, in the one-ton-plus smoker custom-designed by the eponymous Bubba himself, which includes nine doors, a hunger for the hickory, oak, and maple that feeds it, and an almost alchemical ability to turn mere meat into something better suited to poetry and Hallmark cards.?

Pit master Robert ?Bubba? Kolbasowski, a Texas native, is a stickler for details, and his 21-spice dry rub and homemade BBQ sauce are remarkable testaments to his focus on every aspect of what gets sent out of his kitchen. Fortunately, he uses his sauces judiciously, never over-applying them, which would be the BBQ-crime equivalent to certain other offenses that get prosecuted in the Hague. And in truth, his best meats really need no additional sauce beyond what he adds?just a pile of paper towels and beer, and they?re good to go.?

Brisket is the ne plus ultra here. It remains untrimmed until after it?s completed its 24- to 30-hour vacation in the smoker, which allows the fat atop it to slowly melt into the meat itself. A sliced Everest of it, strata upon strata of beefy stupendousness, arrives jiggling like a Jell-O mold. It falls apart with the slightest pressure of the tongue, and disintegrates into a buttery, smoky-sweet memory within seconds. I actually swooned after my first bite.?

Smoked sausage also achieves Himalayan heights. Here, the balance of smoke and spice-heat anchors it, and the tension between the two is pitch-perfect. It?s all cocooned in a natural casing that snaps with each bite, and highlights further the toothy grind of meat inside. Right now it?s being sourced from Kissin Fresh, right in the neighborhood, and the product is excellent.?

Ribs, however, were held back by an over-charred carapace. The meat beneath that shell was smoke-pink and tender, but the black layer on top lent each bite not only an overwhelming sense of bitterness but a toughness that stood out even more sharply given the succulence of everything else. The ribs, though, were one of the very few slip-ups.?

On the opposite end of that spectrum were the wings, beguilingly smoke-perfumed, impossibly moist, and tossed in a choice of three sauces (mild, hot or BBQ) that each would be a highlight anywhere in the city.?

The other quibbles?the ziti, say, in the mac and cheese was a bit overcooked?were minor given the exuberance of the flavors. That side-dish classic, for example, still won me over with its thick pepper jack- and Monterrey jack-kissed b?chamel and three-cheese combo of cheddar, Parmesan and mozzarella, all of it framing the meaty lardons. And there was nothing to balk at when it came to the other sides, either: The collard greens had been cooked down to the point of falling apart, and their earthy funk was expertly countered by a fantastic vinegar-brightened sweetness, as well as pork belly. Kernel-studded cornbread, both sweet and savory at once, proved to be a perfect vessel for sopping up all the commingled juices puddling the plate. ?

The pricing here doesn?t look cheap on the menu, but given the size of the portions, it actually represents a fair value, especially if you order one of the mixed-meat platters. The Lone Star Combo, for example?three meats, three sides, cornbread, pickles?fed two of us, including my seriously carnivorous friend, and also left enough food for us each to bring home a full dinner portion for the next night. (Including dessert, though in all honesty the TastyKake Krimpetbread pudding, with its homemade butterscotch, didn?t last until morning; Executive Chef Mike Buhles does a very nice job in this department and others.)?

Even as the temps continue to plummet, I?ll have to roll down my windows every time I drive by this excellent new addition to the city?s growing reputation as a sort of barbecue meatopia. I don?t want to miss that smell, and the promise it holds.

Cuisine type: Texas-style BBQ.?
Hours: Mon.-Thurs., 3:30pm-midnight; Fri., 3:30pm-2am; Sat., 12:30pm-2am; Sun., 12:30pm-midnight.?
Price range: $3-$22.?
Atmosphere: Friendly and? unpretentious.?
Food: It?s a smoked-meat-lover?s heaven here.?
Service: Laid-back and professional.

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Source: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/food/182058021.html

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Tapping citizen-scientists for a novel gut check

(AP) ? The bacterial zoo inside your gut could look very different if you're a vegetarian or an Atkins dieter, a couch potato or an athlete, fat or thin.

Now for a fee ? $69 and up ? and a stool sample, the curious can find out just what's living in their intestines and take part in one of the hottest new fields in science.

Wait a minute: How many average Joes really want to pay for the privilege of mailing such, er, intimate samples to scientists?

A lot, hope the researchers running two novel citizen-science projects.

One, the American Gut Project, aims to enroll 10,000 people ? and a bunch of their dogs and cats too ? from around the country. The other, uBiome, separately aims to enroll nearly 2,000 people from anywhere in the world.

"We're finally enabling people to realize the power and value of bacteria in our lives," said microbiologist Jack Gilbert of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. He's one of a team of well-known scientists involved with the American Gut Project.

Don't be squeamish: Yes, we share our bodies with trillions of microbes, living communities called microbiomes. Many of the bugs, especially those in the intestinal tract, play indispensable roles in keeping us healthy, from good digestion to a robust immune system.

But which combinations of bacteria seem to keep us healthy? Which ones might encourage problems like obesity, diabetes or irritable bowel syndrome?

And do diet and lifestyle affect those microbes in ways that we might control someday?

Answering those questions will require studying vast numbers of people. Getting started with a grassroots movement makes sense, said National Institutes of Health microbiologist Lita Proctor, who isn't involved with the new projects but is watching closely.

After all, there was much interest in the taxpayer-funded Human Microbiome Project, which last summer provided the first glimpse of what makes up a healthy bacterial community in a few hundred volunteers.

Proctor, who coordinated that project, had worried "there would be a real ick factor. That has not been the case," she said. Many people "want to engage in improving their health."

Scott Jackisch, a computer consultant in Oakland, Calif., ran across American Gut while exploring the science behind different diets, and signed up last week. He's read with fascination earlier microbiome research: "Most of the genetic matter in what we consider ourselves is not human, and that's crazy. I wanted to learn about that."

Testing a single stool sample costs $99 in that project, but he picked a three-sample deal for $260 to compare his own bacterial makeup after eating various foods.

"I want to be extra, extra well," said Jackisch, 42. Differing gut microbes may be the reason "there's no one magic bullet of diet that people can eat and be healthy."

It's clear that people's gut bacteria can change over time. What this new research could accomplish is a first look at how different diets may play a role, "a much better understanding of what matters and what doesn't," said American Gut lead researcher Rob Knight of the University of Colorado, Boulder.

"We don't just want people that have a gut-ache. We want couch potatoes. We want babies. We want vegans. We want athletes. We want anybody and everybody because we need that complete diversity," added American Gut co-founder Jeff Leach, an anthropologist.

One challenge is making sure participants don't expect that a map of their gut bacteria can predict their future health, or suggest lifestyle changes, anytime soon.

"I understand I'm not going to be able to say, 'Oh, my gosh, I'll be susceptible to this,'" said Bradley Heinz, 26, a financial consultant in San Francisco. He is paying uBiome $119 to analyze both his gut and mouth microbiomes; just the gut is $69.

"The more people that participate, the more information comes out and the more that everybody benefits," he added.

Participants can sign up for either project via the social fundraising site Indiegogo.com over the next month. They also can send scrapings from the skin, mouth and other sites, to analyze that bacteria. Sign up enough family members or body sites, or be tracked over time, and the price can rise into the thousands. American Gut researchers plan some free testing for those who can't afford the fees, to increase the experiment's diversity.

Don't forget the pets: "We sleep with them, play with them, they often eat our food," Leach said. What bacteria we have in common is the next logical question.

Already, American Gut researchers are preparing to compare what they find in the typical U.S. gut with a few hundred people in rural Namibia, who eat what's described as hunter-gatherer fare. Also, Leach will spend three months living in Namibia next year, and is storing his own stool samples for before-and-after comparison.

But diet isn't the only factor. Your bacterial makeup starts at birth: Babies absorb different microbes when they're born vaginally than when they're born by C-section, a possible explanation for why cesareans raise the risk for certain infections. Taking antibiotics alters this teeming inner world, and it's not clear if there are lasting consequences, especially for young children.

Then there's your environment, such as the infections spread in hospitals. In February, a new University of Chicago hospital building opens and Gilbert will test the surfaces, the patients and their health workers to see how quickly bad bugs can move in and identify which bacteria are protective.

Whatever the findings, all the research marks "a huge teachable moment" about how we interact with microbes, Leach said.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.

___

Online:

www.indiegogo.com/americangut

www.indiegogo.com/ubiome

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2012-12-04-HealthBeat-Gut%20Check/id-2862b6ec67d54679a3b7cfcffb030bcf

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sandraketchum2: jansen lassen: Education & Reference 2015 ...

McDougal Littell Algebra 1
McDougal Littell Algebra 1: Applications, Equations, Graphs
by Ron Larson, Laurie Boswell, Timothy Kanold, Lee Stiff
3.6 out of 5 stars(42)

New!: $102.35 (as of 11/28/2012 20:41 PST)
399 Used! | New! from $4.95 (as of 11/28/2012 20:41 PST)

Education & Reference

Text includes application highlights, career links, skill reviews, quizzes, test preparation questions, chapter summary, and review for standardized tests.

  • Rank: #6529 in Books
  • Published on: 1999-11-03
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 1.32" h x 8.70" w x 10.80" l, 4.40 pounds
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 896 pages

Source: http://topeducationreference952.blogspot.com/2012/11/mcdougal-littell-algebra-1-applications.html

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Source: http://miquelhooper172.typepad.com/blog/2012/11/education-reference-2015-mcdougal-littell-algebra-1.html

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Source: http://jansen-lassen.blogspot.com/2012/12/education-reference-2015-mcdougal.html

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Source: http://sandraketchum2.blogspot.com/2012/12/jansen-lassen-education-reference-2015.html

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Source: http://powell986.typepad.com/blog/2012/12/sandraketchum2-jansen-lassen-education-reference-2015.html

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Use Music, Memes, and Other Pop Culture to Learn a Foreign Language Faster

Use Music, Memes, and Other Pop Culture to Learn a Foreign Language FasterMany of us have learning a foreign language on our bucket lists, and the more we immerse ourselves in a new language, the better. One easy and fun way to do that is to tap into the pop culture of native speakers: music, TV shows, and common phrases.

Technology entrepreneur Kumar Thangudu has a list of ten language learning hacks. He mentions quirky ethnic television shows, such as the foreign version of American Idol (where you might see renditions of songs you know done in the other language), foreign music (Lyrics Training on YouTube could be helpful), and watching TV (or movies with the subtitles on). Learning foreign memes, with their associated images, are also a fun way to remember words.

One new trick I learned from the list was the use of pangrams, which are sentences that use every letter of the alphabet at least once. For example, the foreign language equivalent of "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." This could be helpful with improving your pronunciation.

Hit up Kumar's blog post for more ideas on learning a new language.

Foreign Language Learning Hacks | H. Kumar Thangudu

Photo by Nick Wiesner

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/z4Aeg-d4J6I/use-music-memes-and-other-pop-culture-to-learn-a-foreign-language-faster

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Facebook Messenger allows sign-ups with just a name and phone number on Android devices

Facebook Messenger lets us sign up with just a name and phone number on Android today, iOS soon

Facebook Messenger might as well be as ubiquitous as SMS text messaging for some, but there's a catch to getting everyone to agree: despite there being over a billion Facebook users, not everyone is able (or willing) to fire up a social networking profile to get started. Some of the Android users among us won't have to go through that trouble as of today. An imminent update to the Facebook Messenger app will let anyone sign up using just their name and a phone number; any initial friends will come directly from the newcomer's own mobile contact list. The rollout is currently focusing on Australia, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Venezuela, but should spread to the rest of the world in short order. iOS users are also in line to get the update, although the timetable is less definite. Whatever the platform, Facebook is clearly eager to give those seemingly few holdouts from its service an easy way to test the waters -- and possibly save on their messaging rates in the process.

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Via: Facebook, TechCrunch

Source: Google Play

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/04/facebook-messenger-lets-us-sign-up-with-just-a-name-and-number/

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Pope gets more than half million Twitter followers

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Even though he hasn't sent a single tweet yet, Pope Benedict had more than half a million Twitter followers in eight languages on Tuesday, the day after the Vatican unveiled his handle: @Pontifex.

They included people ranging from the simple Roman Catholic faithful to a Jewish head of state.

"Your holiness, welcome to Twitter. Our relations with the Vatican are at their best & can form a basis to further peace everywhere," tweeted Israeli President Shimon Peres, who at 89 is four years older than Benedict.

The Vatican said on Monday that Benedict will start tweeting on mostly spiritual topics from December 12.

The pope actually has eight linked Twitter accounts. @Pontifex, the main account, is in English. The other seven have a suffix at the end for the different language versions. For example, the German version is @Pontifex_de, and the Arabic version is @Pontifex_ar.

On Tuesday afternoon, the English version had the most followers, with nearly 400,000. The next largest was Spanish, with some 93,000. The lowest number of followers was the Arabic, with about 3,500. Benedict's native German had about 10,000.

But the pope, leader of some 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, won't be following anyone but himself, the Vatican said.

A look at his official Twitter page on Tuesday showed that he is "following" seven people but they are merely versions of his own Twitter account in different languages.

The first papal tweets will be answers to questions sent to #askpontifex.

The tweets will be going out in Spanish, English, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French. Other languages will be added in the future.

The tweets will come primarily from the contents of his weekly general audience, Sunday blessings and homilies on major Church holidays. They will also include reaction to major world events, such as natural disasters.

He will push the button on his first tweet himself on December 12 but in the future most of the tweets will be written by aides, and he will sign off on them.

The Vatican, whose website has been taken down by hackers in the past, said it has taken precautions to make sure the pope's certified account is not hacked. Only one computer in the Vatican's Secretariat of State will be used for the tweets.

The pope's Twitter page is designed in yellow and white - the colors of the Vatican - and his picture over the backdrop of a St Peter's Square packed with pilgrims.

The page may change during different liturgical seasons of the year and when the pope is away from the Vatican on trips.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-gets-370-000-twitter-followers-24-hours-142230094.html

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Latest news, rumors from 2012 Winter Meetings

Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez

Even with Zack Greinke and Anibal Sanchez still up for grabs, the National League already seems set to sport some excellent rotations in 2013. How about this for the top four: Nationals: Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, Dan Haren, Ross Detwiler Giants: Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito Phillies: Roy?

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/

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Telling History vs. Making Art: Killer Angels, real and fictional ...

Part five in a?series.

In my last post, I began to discuss Michael Shaara?s aesthetic choices for constructing?The Killer Angels?as he did, and how he adopted a Lost Cause-interpretation of Robert E. Lee as a central choice for his novel.

Where Shaara deviates significantly from Lost Cause tradition, though, is his choice to make Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet a hero of the novel. Longstreet was Lee?s left hand and second in command. However, Lost Cause advocates, particularly Confederate generals Jubal Early and Fitzhugh Lee, scapegoated Longstreet (and others) for the Southern defeat at Gettysburg?all in an attempt to absolve Lee and preserve his Marble Man status.?Longstreet didn?t help his own case after the war by becoming a Republican, accepting various government jobs, and criticizing Lee. History has not been kind to Lee?s ?Old Warhorse.??Shaara?s sympathetic treatment of him in?The Killer Angels?almost single-handedly resurrected public interest in Longstreet?s controversial career.

On the Federal side, Shaara focuses on cavalryman John Buford and, most significantly, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine Infantry. Posted at the far left flank of the Union army on a piece of topographically important ground, Chamberlain?s men had to beat back a series of Confederate attacks on July 2, 1863. ?You cannot withdraw,? Chamberlain?s commander tells him in the novel. ?Under any conditions. If you go, the line is flanked. If you go, they?ll go right up the hilltop and take us in the rear. You must defend this place to the last.?

The action as depicted in the novel and, later, in the movie?Gettysburg, and as recounted in Ken Burns??The Civil War, has become the stuff of legend?in fact, ?far more legend than history,? says historian Tom Desjardin. ?Shaara?s novelized version of Chamberlain?s day at Gettysburg exceeds by any measure the historical fact of the event.?

But Desjardin points out that Shaara isn?t attempting to chronicle Chamberlain?s day. Rather, he says Shaara ?meant to expose a wonderful, glorious, and tragic past to a generation of Americans still soured on the idea of war as a just and honorable entity. He sought perhaps to reinstill a sense that America and Americans had once been something more noble and honorable than the legacy of Vietnam made them seem.?

Those ideas, very much in keeping with the heroic deeds of valor central to the Reconciliation Tradition but given a 1970?s spin, drive an agenda far different than the objective conveyance of facts a historian would advocate. ?Novels are not bound by fact,? Desjardin says. ?They have an emotive quality that only fiction can provide and often must provide in order to succeed.?

?Shaara?s story is told so well, his character portrayals are so believable, that the unknowing reader might believe what they are reading?is?history,? writes historian Scott Hartwig, the National Park Service?s acknowledged expert on Gettysburg.?Hartwig had to discard initial prejudices against the book as a historian??or tried very hard to,? he admits:

and found that there was more to this novel than met the eye. It held deeper meaning than simply to tell the story of the Battle of Gettysburg, and it was beautifully written?. Still, the number of people who read this novel and came away thinking they had read a history of the battle, annoyed me.

The blurry line between fact and fiction in?The Killer Angels?is best exemplified by Buster Kilrain, a fictitious sergeant in the 20th Maine who serves as Shaara?s personal voice (for more on Kilrain, check out this piece).??It does not seem to bother people that the character is a middle-aged, overweight private who follows his commanding officer around telling him what to do while calling him ?darling,?? says Desjardin.?The fictitious Kilrain interacts with the historically real characters because Shaara needs him, as a literary device, to do so. If Chamberlain is the American hero in the classical style, Kilrain contrasts against him as the modern everyman, too cynical for his own good yet someone who can still see the value in Chamberlain?s goodness and appreciate it. Shaara?s myth-building uses Kilrain?s voice to help sculpt Chamberlain?s heroic stature:

You are damned good at everything I?ve seen you do, a lovely soldier, an honest man, and got a good heart on you too, which is rare in clever men?. The strange and marvelous thing about you, Colonel darlin?, is that you believe in mankind, even preachers, whereas when you?ve got my great experience you will have learned that good men are rare, much rarer than you think.

In service to his myth-making, Shaara isn?t afraid to subvert facts. For instance, on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, he repositions the 20th Maine squarely behind the Union center along Cemetery Ridge. ?[A] lovely spot,? a lieutenant tells Chamberlain as the regiment gets ready to move. ?Safest place on the battlefield. Right smack dab in the center of the line. Very quiet there.??Most readers know the area won?t be quiet at all, so not only does Shaara create a touch of irony that serves as a foreboding end-of-chapter cliffhanger, it positions his hero to witness the climactic Pickett?s Charge. ?We?re right in the path,? Chamberlain thinks as the Confederates hit. ?Would not have missed this for anything, not anything in the world.?

?This is pure fiction,? says Hartwig.?In reality, the 20th Maine was positioned some three-quarters of a mile away from the battle?but because Shaara literally is creating ?pure fiction,? the move to Cemetery Ridge serves several artistic functions and contributes to the myth of his noble hero.

Shaara?s son, Jeff, has not inserted himself as a Kilrain-style literary device into his own Civil War books the way his father did?as a stylist, he?s not nearly that sophisticated?but he otherwise takes similar liberties with his characters. ?If you have read any of my books, you know that these stories are driven not by events, but by characters,? he writes in the introduction to his most recent novel,?A Blaze of Glory, about the battle of Shiloh. ?For me, the points of view of the characters in this story are more appealing than the blow-by-blow facts and figures that are the necessary products of history textbooks?. [M]y goal is not to offer a complete detailed history of the event. If that?s what you seek, then by all means, read Shelby Foote or Jim McPherson. I hope that when all is said and done, you will accept that what I am trying to offer you is a good story.?

Nonetheless, Shaara professes to engage in ?painstaking (and voluminous)? research, making ?a strenuous effort to be historically accurate, to get the facts straight.??As a result, he almost seems to begrudge the fact that his book ?has to be described as a novel because there is dialogue, and you are often inside the thoughts of these characters.??He tips his hand further in the introduction to?Gods and Generals, his first novel, which he dedicates to ?those who learned their American history in often impersonal textbooks.??The implication is that they?re about to learn some history from him.

When his readers walk into the Jackson Shrine, I?m delighted that the book has inspired them to stop. From that point on, the onus rests on me to be sure they leave with the story set straight.

Next: The Civil War?s great storyteller

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Source: http://scholarsandrogues.com/2012/12/04/telling-history-vs-making-art-killer-angels-real-and-fictional/

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Third storm in less than week drenches NorCal

A traffic control vehicle transits a flooded underpass in San Rafael, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Days of heavy rains have left the region saturated and several rivers are expected to flood their banks Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A traffic control vehicle transits a flooded underpass in San Rafael, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. Days of heavy rains have left the region saturated and several rivers are expected to flood their banks Sunday afternoon. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A vehicle transits a flooded underpass in San Rafael, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012, as utility workers work to repair a downed power line. Although sunny skies reappeared throughout the region Sunday afternoon, flood warnings remain for several rivers. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Kimberly Masklyne looks at her flooded car, Sunday Dec. 2, 2012, in Windsor, Calif. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings yesterday for both the Napa and Russian rivers. (AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Kent Porter)

Utility crews work in the wind and rain to repair a power pole that was damaged by the overnight storm along Hall Road in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. The National Weather Service issued flood warnings yesterday for both the Napa and Russian rivers. (AP Photo/The Press Democrat, Kent Porter)

(AP) ? Residents of Northern California endured the brunt of another powerful storm that drenched the area with yet another round of pounding rain and strong winds, but damage from the storm was less than expected, officials said.

The latest storm system ? the third to hit the area in less than a week ? moved across the region late Saturday and early Sunday dropping as much as an inch of rain per hour in some areas, toppling trees and knocking out electrical service to tens of thousands of people, officials said.

Rivers across Northern California swelled from the deluge, but did not flood as extensively as had been expected, officials said.

Forecasters had issued flood warnings for the Napa and Russian rivers, two rivers north of San Francisco with a history of flooding, as well as the Truckee River, near Lake Tahoe, but by Sunday afternoon had canceled the warning for the Russian River.

"It (the storm) moved through a lit bit faster than it was looking like it would, so it didn't plant on top of us and keeping raining," said Austin Cross, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "The period of heavy rain didn't last as long."

In Napa, where officials had handed out more than 8,000 sandbags and about 150 tons of sand before the storm hit, officials breathed a sigh of relief Sunday afternoon after the heaviest rain moved out of the area and the city appeared to avoid any major damage from the storm.

"We've had some minor street flooding and some of the intersections were flooded," Napa city spokesman Barry Martin said.

Flood construction projects were credited with keeping the river within its banks through the city, while most of anticipated flooding, expected around 6 p.m. Sunday, was expected to hit a mostly agricultural area outside of the city, officials said.

In Truckee, 30 miles west of Reno, city officials were focusing on snow removal Sunday afternoon instead of flood control after the town received 4 to 5 inches of snow in the morning, said Assistant City Manager Alex Terrazas.

"We continue to keep an eye on the river, but things are certainly better than they could have been," he said. "We'll transition back to flood management if we need to."

Besides the speed in which the system moved through the area, weather officials were heartened by colder temperatures than expected in the mountains, meaning more snow and less rain fell.

In far Northern California, flood warnings remained in effect Sunday for the Eel, Navarro and Mad rivers.

Meanwhile, as Pacific Gas & Electric crews worked on restoring power, about 57,000 people from Santa Cruz to Eureka, including about 13,000 people in the San Francisco Bay area, remained without electricity Sunday afternoon as the powerful winds from the storm knocked down trees and sent broken tree limbs and branches across power lines, officials said.

"It really did broadside California," PG&E spokesman Joe Molica said of the storm.

About 2,000 PG&E crews were working Sunday to try to restore power, Molica said.

Wind gusts, recorded as high as 60 miles per hour in parts of the Bay area, were blamed for knocking over a big rig truck as it drove over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge at around 5 a.m. Sunday.

Tow crews had to wait for the winds to subside later in the morning before they could remove the truck, officials said.

Also, train service on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system was disrupted for about an hour Sunday morning because of an electrical outage blamed on the weather.

___

Associated Press writer Martin Griffith contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-02-California%20Storm/id-7ed1bebee67a4a1ebce8c38845ebaa5f

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