Now they’re calling it a 9.0 on the Richter scale.

Remember, the scale is logarithmic, so a 9.0 is one hundred times more powerful than a 7.0. For comparison, the Loma Prieta earthquake (the one that disrupted the World Series in 1989) was a 7.1, and the Northridge quake (which killed 54 people and caused over $40 billion in damage in the L.A. area in 1994) was only a 6.7.

Colts QB Payton Manning needs one touchdown pass to tie Dan Marino’s single-season record, and two to break it. The Colts (11-3) and Chargers (11-3) are about to kick off on CBS.

UPDATE: I missed it (cuz I was out buying my new camera), but Manning broke the record in dramatic fashion, throwing his 49th touchdown of the season in the final minute of regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime. The Colts won in OT, 34-31.

Reggie White, one of the greatest defensive players in NFL history, died this morning, apparently from respiratory failure related to sleep apnea. He was 43. (Hat tip: Chris.)

Now they’re saying more than 7,000 people died in yesterday’s earthquakes and tsunamis in Southeast Asia. I’m guessing that number will rise even higher, into the tens of thousands. :(

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday! I certainly did, my ongoing sore throat and cough notwithstanding.

Thanks very much to everyone who gave me a present, sent me a card, telepathically trasmitted Christmas cheer in my direction, etc. :) Also, much love and cheer to all my family and friends, including the community here on BrendanLoy.com! Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

To wrap up the day, here’s a photo of a snowy Gulf Coast beach experiencing a rare White Christmas:

And here’s a picture that my mom sent out via e-mail on Saturday afternoon, showing Newington’s first significant snowfall of the season:

The picture was taken on Monday, December 20, and all the snow melted before Saturday — but as she wrote in the e-mail, “On the Internet it’s always a White Christmas.” :)

Contrary to previous predictions, the risk of a Friday the 13th Apocalypse is going up, not down. There is now a 1 in 45 chance that Asteroid 2004 MN4 will hit the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029. That’s a 2.2% risk. Yesterday, when the risk was only 1.6% (1 in 62), NASA wrote:

Today’s impact monitoring results indicate that the impact probability for April 13, 2029 has risen to about 1.6%, which for an object of this size corresponds to a rating of 4 on the ten-point Torino Scale. Nevertheless, the odds against impact are still high, about 60 to 1, meaning that there is a better than 98% chance that new data in the coming days, weeks, and months will rule out any possibility of impact in 2029.

So, er, make that a “better than 97% chance.”

This is the first object ever to be rated higher than 1 on the Torino Scale, and it’s already a 4, which means “current observations give a 1% or greater chance of collision capable of regional devastation.” InstaPundit says, “This is moving out of the ‘isn’t that interesting’ range, and into the ‘isn’t that worrisome’ range.”

Of course, a 1 in 45 chance it’ll hit is still a 44 in 45 chance that it won’t. But I’m with Glenn. It is a bit worrisome.

Jay Manifold says it would have a projected impact energy of 2,200 megatons, which would impact an area of over 9,000 square miles. So, perhaps “apocalypse” is overstating it a bit, but it’d be bad.

Stay tuned, as they say.

Sounds like a disaster of the first order in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and elsewhere in that area, after a massive offshore earthquake, 8.5 on the Richter scale (that’s stronger than Thursday’s harmless biggest-in-four-years quake off Antarctica), produced a big tidal wave, and was then followed by eight aftershocks in the 6.0 range, at least one of which occurred on shore.

UPDATE: Now they’re saying it was the largest earthquake since 1965, and they’re already reporting a death toll of 500. I suspect and fear that the final toll will be in the thousands, perhaps many thousands.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now they’re saying it was an 8.9 on the Richter scale. That would put it fifth on the all-time list, and would actually make it the worst since 1964, not 1965.

P.S. Drudge is going nuts with this story.