Boom

When it comes to viral videos, the "boom goes the dynamite" guy was a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. The video of Brian Collins, then an overwhelmed college sports broadcaster who bombed in epic fashion, has been viewed more than six millions times since it was uploaded to YouTube in 2005. My college buddies and I were probably responsible for at least one million of those hits , and his classic catchphrase -- "and boom goes the dynamite" -- has been a part of my lexicon ever since.

Harbor East is moving farther east with baker-cum-developer John Paterakis Sr.'s announcement Friday that he will break ground this summer on a new, mega-Whole Foods and later on a new residential/retail building across Central Avenue from the glittering mini-city he has almost single handedly built during the last 15 years. Things are bustling in that corner of the city, what with the planned construction of a new headquarters office tower for Exelon Corp. and a variety of other smaller scale residential, retail, office and hotel developments nearby.

The original proponents of the enterprise zone idea for the United States were inspired by the East Asian economic miracle -- development absolutely unfettered by any regulation or tax. Fortunately, the idea was never accepted in undiluted form here. Thailand is the latest Asian country to be in full-fledged miraculous development, and the Royal Plaza Hotel collapse in a provincial town, with confirmed deaths at more than 100 and growing, is the kind of risk taken.This two-story hotel had four stories added and a seventh under construction when the structure gave way. A reasonable building code and reasonable enforcement would have saved those lives and not impeded real development.

Remember the 1980s? It was to be the decade of Japanese dominance. A post-Jimmy Carter America would be unable to compete with the efficient Japanese jobs machine. Aging technology, lazy management and high-cost labor would ensure America's rapid demise at the hands of the ascendant Asian economic superpower. History records a very different evolution, however, including a prolonged economic slump that continues to haunt the Japanese economy to this day. At the onset of a new millennium, many pundits predicted it would be the Chinese who would dislodge America from its dominant economic perch.

Brian Schilpp, who has spent his life along Back River, said he was never more proud of that heritage than on Wednesday, when he was overlooking a trash boom filled with waterlogged garbage. Baltimore County installed the heavy-duty vinyl boom last month at a cost of $80,000. The 700-foot-long entrapment device, held in place by seven anchors, has been stationed at the headwaters of the Back River, a waterway often reviled for its foul smells and trash-lined banks. While the boom halts the flow of debris downstream, it also shows how much trash is dumped into area waterways.

What hypocrites we be! We expound the virtues of shipping millions of tons of coal to stoke the fires of Asia — with a handsome profit to us while abetting Asia's environmental disaster ("Coal exports through port booming," June 12). Yet we revile coal as a means of addressing our energy needs here in the U.S. Seems like an international application of the familiar point of view, "not in my backyard. " Paul Butler, Street

Mount Airy will mark its centennial this weekend, an appropriate time to reflect on the town's history and ponder its future. Like many other small towns, Mount Airy has its share of boom and bust cycles, although boom seems in store for the foreseeable future for this quaint burg near the juncture of Carroll, Howard, Frederick and Montgomery counties.Railroads were the defining force for much of Mount Airy's history, later replaced by the automobile. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad's construction of the Baltimore to Frederick line generated a tremendous spurt of development in the 1830s -- and the town's name as well.

Census Bureau figures just released show how much the nation's demographics changed in the decade just ending. The "minority" population rose dramatically. In 1990, white Americans of European ancestry were still the nation's dominant group, but at about 75 percent of the nation's population, down considerably from 10 years ago, when that figure was a little over 80 percent. In decades past the proportion was in the high 80s.The big change in the 1980s was brought about by immigration from Asia and Latin America.

THE MUCH-MALIGNED factory sector is booming. Not rising. Not improving. Booming. According to new data from the Institute of Supply Management, which tracks the manufacturing sector, new orders, production, order backlogs, export orders and employment were very strong in May. The industrial sector is so strong that the speed of supplier deliveries has hit its highest level since April 1979. This means that firms cannot produce fast enough to meet rising demand, which is why commodity prices continue to climb.

THE STOCK sell-off of the past several weeks is no surprise. Newton's Law, the law of averages, the economics of arbitrage and the experience of history all predicted that stocks would fall. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan himself had called the event inevitable. Only the timing was uncertain -- a qualifier akin to that old question, "aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"But what does it mean? Is the expansion over? Will there be a bear market? Will there be a crash? Will there be a recession?

Times are good these days at the Linde Corp., where despite a sluggish economy nationally, the company is on a hiring binge. The construction company, based near Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania, has seen its workforce nearly triple over the past five years as it switched from helping to build big-box stores to laying miles of natural gas pipelines connecting hundreds of gas wells drilled in the rolling rural terrain here in Susquehanna County....

The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground plans to conduct several large detonations beginning on or about March 11 and ending on or about March 22. These detonations are likely to generate sound and/or vibration outside the installation's boundaries. If weather conditions are not favorable in minimizing noise off of the installation, firing will be rescheduled. The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, a test center under the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, provides test and test support services for authorized customers, within the Department of Defense and outside the DoD, including government and non-government organizations, both foreign and domestic.

As the clock ticked down Sunday, the morning clouds disappeared, as if they were in on the months-long planning that went into the destruction of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s final natural-gas holding silo. Then, as if someone were turning on Christmas lights, the rings of the cylinder blinked with 420 explosive charges. It took a moment for the noise - like thunder after lightning pierces the sky - for the rat-ta-tat-tat to reach the observers on the roof of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute across the Jones Falls Expressway.

There's a Starbucks and an Outback Steakhouse and a growing young tech company. Soon, a Harris Teeter grocery store and a Target will be built. All are helping to draw new residents to Canton. But where to park? "I don't know of any small part of Canton where there isn't a parking problem," said Darryl Jurkiewicz, president of the Canton Community Association. His organization has been pushing city officials for months to find solutions. The Boston Street corridor in Southeast Baltimore has become the latest ground zero for a familiar battle.

Somewhere in the third year of Tribune Co.'s marathon Chapter 11 proceeding, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey looked out at a Delaware courtroom packed with high-priced attorneys and conceded the case had broken down into what he called a "multiconstituent melee. " "The parties are represented by some of the best lawyers in the field," he said. "You know how to fight well ... but nobody ends up the better for it, really. " Carey was trying to make a point about the foundation of bankruptcy law, which recognizes that a company and its creditors are better off hammering out a settlement than fighting endless court battles.

The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, plans to conduct several large detonations beginning on or about Monday, Dec. 17, and ending on or about Friday, Dec. 21. These detonations are likely to generate sound and/or vibration outside the installation boundary, according to the installation command. If weather conditions are not favorable in minimizing noise off the installation, firing will be rescheduled, the command said in a news release. The U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center, a test center under the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, provides test and test support services for authorized customers, within the Department of Defense and outside the DoD, including government and non-government organizations, both foreign and domestic.

A small building boom was expected in Carroll County's Freedom District after the moratorium on sewer hookups was lifted last summer.Two years ago, the county halted hookups until the treatment plant's capacity could be increased from 1.8 million gallons a day to 3.5 million. The moratorium put a brake on growth.The anticipated boom hasn't materialized yet, but county planning officials expect that developers, who have been biding their time during the recession, will begin to build now that interest rates are down and the economy is recovering.

REMEMBER BOB DOLE'S criticism of Hollywood last year for glamorizing violence and sex? His speech got a huge reaction, unlike anything the senator from Kansas had experienced to that point, according to Bob Woodward's book on the presidential campaign.Hollywood obviously sat up and took notice because its offerings this summer include:An Arnold Schwarzenegger movie in which a lot of people get blown up.A Tom Cruise movie in which a lot of people get blown up.A Nicholas Cage-Sean Connery movie in which a lot of people get blown up.A science-fiction thriller about people and aliens getting blown up.And, for a change of pace, there's a movie featuring Jim Carrey, that $20 million bastion of culture and taste, as a manic stalker.

Cheryl Knauer has a restaurant gift card in mind for her in-laws, a massage gift card planned for another family member and intends to pick up cards in smaller dollar amounts to Chick-fil-A and Starbucks for kids' stockings and teachers' gifts. The Parkville mother of three told family members seeking ideas for her hard-to-shop-for 11-year-old to buy him gift cards too - maybe from Target or GameStop. Knauer, director of media relations at McDaniel College in Westminster, said she's feeling less rushed this Christmas season because she can easily grab the gifts, even at the last minute.

Nine of the richest individuals in the United States live in Maryland, according to Forbes. Two of them do business in Baltimore, and quite prominently so (sometimes together): Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti and Under Armour founder Kevin Plank. There's a third man who is, at the very least, on the cusp of being a billionaire if he is not already. Peter Angelos, owner of one of Baltimore's most prominent law firms and its baseball team, has shrewdly built his fortune for decades.