The "News" thread.

[gwillybj]

New Year's Eve Was Colder In Canada Than On Mars
By: Erin Ruberry
Today in "Baby, it's cold outside" news:

The daytime high on New Year's Eve in Winnipeg, Canada, was colder than the high on Mars, The Manitoba Museum shared on its Facebook page.

Or, as Time put it, "Winnipeg’s New Year’s Was Literally as Cold as a Barren Alien Wasteland."

From Facebook:

"According to the Curiosity Rover, Mars reached a maximum air temperature of -29°C today.  Winnipeg's high was -31°C."

And that doesn't even include wind chill, which made it feel as cold as -50° C. That's -58°F and -- breaking news -- that's pretty cold.

The Winnipeg Sun noted it was also colder in Manitoba's capital city than the North Pole, calling December 2013 the coldest December in Winnipeg since 1933:

"There has been a cooler New Year’s Eve on record, with the mercury dropping to -38.3 C on Dec. 31, 1884. But that is of little solace to most Winnipeggers enduring a cold that, with the windchill factored in, felt like -48 C."

The Mars Curiosity Rover posted a photo New Year's Day showing its current surroundings:

Goals for 2014: Finish driving to Mars' Mount Sharp & do all the science I can. #resolutions pic.twitter.com/M48IbqpJSQ

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) January 1, 2014
At the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, the temperature hovered around -9 degrees Fahrenheit Thursday, Jan. 2. How cold is it where you live?

(h/t The Atlantic)

http://blogs.discovery.com/inscider/2014/01/it-was-colder-in-canada-than-on-mars.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Mile marker 420 becomes 419.99 to thwart thieves
Associated Press
1 hour ago



DENVER (AP) — Colorado officials think a difference of one-hundredth of a mile will be enough to stop thieves from stealing the mile marker 420 sign along Interstate 70.

Amy Ford of the Colorado Department of Transportation says the "MILE 420" sign near Stratton was stolen for the last time sometime in the last year, and officials replaced it with a sign that says "MILE 419.99."

Ford says it's the only "420" sign to be replaced in the state that recently legalized recreational marijuana. Most highways aren't long enough to need one.

The number "420" has long been associated with marijuana, though its origins as a shorthand for pot are murky.

Mile 419.99, about 25 miles from the Kansas border, isn't the only place in Colorado with a fractional mile marker. Cameron Pass in Larimer County has a "MILE 68.5" sign after frequent thefts of the "MILE 69" sign.

http://news.yahoo.com/mile-marker-420-becomes-419-99-thwart-thieves-235742124.html

[Rusty Edge]

That reminds me of some of my favorite highway signs.

One on I-80 westbound in PA that says "Mile Run 2 miles"

Another on I-81 southbound  in upstate NY that says " Marathon 11 miles"

I guess races don't always measure up.

[gwillybj]

Electricity Bills Shock Some Residents
SCOTT DONNELLY -- [email protected] Glens Falls Post-Star

Before he opened his latest utility bill, Kim Nelson never thought much about how electricity is priced.

“At least with gasoline, we know what the cost is going to be before we put it in the tank,” he said. “We can grump about that, but then we can say, ‘If it’s going to cost me that much, I can’t do this trip, this trip and that trip.’”

The Queensbury resident heats almost exclusively with a wood stove, using electricity only for the water heater, lights and appliances. His two daughters recently decided to move back home, though, so he knows his energy use is up.

Still, he is in good company among New York residents who have seen their cost per kilowatt hour jump by about 53 percent from December to January.

Patrick Stella, a spokesman for National Grid, which serves most electricity and natural gas customers in the greater Glens Falls area, explained this week the increase is directly linked to a jump in natural gas prices, which have risen because of record-low temperatures nationwide in December and the first part of January.

“Electric supply is very, very much tied to the cost of natural gas because those power plants that are making electricity, the majority of them are natural gas-powered,” Stella said. “So, they’re buying natural gas in order to make electricity.”

National Grid said last week its 3.4 million natural gas customers used about 4.56 billion cubic feet on Jan. 3, beating the previous record by more than 68 million cubic feet.

Another record was recorded Jan. 7, when the utility’s customers used more than 4.79 billion cubic feet. At the same time, electricity plants were using larger-than-normal amounts of natural gas to create electricity, which was also in higher demand because of the record-cold temperatures.

The same dynamic comes into play during extremely hot summers, when air-conditioning demands cause a spike in natural gas use by electricity plants.

Stella said National Grid has heard from customers suffering from sticker shock in recent days. But he pointed out National Grid doesn’t make electricity or produce natural gas.

The utility’s business is delivering energy to customers.

National Grid has to purchase enough of both commodities to keep them flowing to customers who don’t opt to purchase them from third-party suppliers. But the utility’s portion of the bill is limited to transmission costs.

Also, National Grid can’t space out its electricity purchases the way it manages natural gas purchases — buying during summer months when the prices are typically lower — because electricity can’t be stored as readily as natural gas can, Stella said. The utility’s purchase practices for natural gas sheltered natural gas customers from similar spikes in prices during recent frigid weather, he said.

“Natural gas bills for upstate New York residents were down 9 percent from December of 2012,” Stella said. “When I say that, I’m talking about the entire natural gas bill, so putting together delivery and supply.”

Stella said the utility’s delivery rates are also lower than they were last year, due to a new rate agreement with the state’s Public Service Commission that went into effect April 1.

National Grid, like most utilities in New York state, relies on the New York Independent Service Operator to procure the electricity it needs to serve customers.

David Flanagan, a spokesman for the private, not-for-profit NYISO, said natural gas prices have been up over the past year, and a further increase each winter is not unusual.

He said the energy markets experienced a similar jump in January 2011 and in January 2013. The winter of 2012 was relatively mild, however, prompting lower demand for natural gas and keeping prices lower that year, Flanagan said.

Extremely cold weather can further boost the cost of natural gas by straining the delivery system for the commodity, Flanagan said. As electricity plants compete with residential customers for the fuel, efforts to move it around grow more expensive.

As a result, the statewide monthly average natural gas price rose 46.5 percent from November to December. At the same time, the statewide wholesale market price of electricity rose by 53 percent over the same period.

Electricity-generating facilities that burn natural gas are more susceptible to the monthly spot prices for natural gas because they don’t have the option of storing cheaper natural gas purchased during the summer months, as utilities do. They must comply with negotiated supply contracts.

For his part, Nelson said he knows another reason his electricity use spiked in January. He bought a hot tub in the summer, in part to help him manage pain from injuries he suffered on the job, he said.

“This is my first winter with it, but I thought, ‘Shoot, we’ve got this cold snap, I’m not going to go in it for that long,” he said.

If he’d known the cost of electricity had spiked, he might have drained the tub and winterized it for a month or two “until the weather calms down,” he said.

Nelson said he’s aware National Grid offers a budget plan, which spaces residents’ estimated full-year energy costs out over all 12 months to minimize — or eliminate — price spikes. He also knows he has the option of shopping around for a third-party electricity supplier.

He said he’s going to consider both options in the future, considering this winter’s harsh lesson.

National Grid also offers information about residents’ energy use and price plans online at nationalgridus.com/NewYork.

Pretty much the same all around?

http://poststar.com/news/local/electricity-bills-shock-some-residents/article_2bf25e3a-7efe-11e3-8c7f-001a4bcf887a.html

[Geo]

Over here, electricity prices are fixed for at least a year if you choose the right contract with your power company.
And you pay a fixed amount each month, with once or twice a year an extra bill or a return payment according to your powrr usage.

[Buster's Uncle]

Man in dog shirt poses with dog in man shirt
By Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News  January 22, 2014 4:48 PM





   
An open letter to whoever took this photograph:

Congratulations, you have won the Internet. Your photo, while blurry and not particularly well-framed, is without question one of the greatest single images in the history of history.

Of course you are aware of the photo's majesty, but please permit us to expound on its many virtues as we were rendered speechless after first seeing it and are just now beginning to make sense of all it does.

The shirts are amazing. Even more amazing, though, are the poses. The male subject sits slightly slouched staring downward, perhaps at a rebroadcast of "Puppy Bowl." He seems wholly uninterested in the fame that awaits him.

And the dog. A lot of pooches lose some dignity when they are forced to wear clothes. Not this one. This dog owns it.

Perhaps someday another image will come along that sends our hearts aflutter even more, but we doubt it. We seriously doubt it.

Is the photo new? Who knows, and who cares? Was it digitally altered? Possibly; it's still genius.

Special thanks to actress Rose McGowan for posting it to Instagram. Your odds of getting a lifetime achievement award just went up.

With deepest admiration,

Yahoo Sideshow

UPDATE: The man in the photo is Chris Bowser, a war veteran who was struck by a grenade while serving in Iraq in 2003. His nonprofit organization, Heroes Meeting Heroes, aims to give "other wounded soldiers the opportunity to get to meet some of their heroes."

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-in-dog-shirt-poses-with-dog-in-man-shirt-214849356.html

[Unorthodox]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22504777-reports-lunches-seized-from-utah-schoolkids-because-of-unpaid-bills?lite

Dozens of children at a Utah school had their lunches seized and thrown away because they did not have enough money in their accounts, prompting an angry response from parents, it was reported.
"She took my lunch away and said, 'Go get a milk,’” Sophia Isom, a fifth-grader at Salt Lake City’s Uintah Elementary School, told NBC affiliate KSL.com. "I came back and asked, 'What's going on?' Then she handed me an orange. She said, 'You don't have any money in your account so you can't get lunch.’”
Up to 40 kids suffered similar treatment, given fruit and milk as their lunches were thrown away, the station reported. 
Isom's mom Erica Lukes called the move “traumatic and humiliating” and told the Salt Lake Tribune she was all paid up.
"I think it’s despicable," she said. "These are young children that shouldn’t be punished or humiliated for something the parents obviously need to clear up."
Salt Lake City District Spokesperson Jason Olsen told the Tribune that parents had been notified about negative balances on Monday and a child nutrition manager had decided to withhold lunches to deal with the issue. They were thrown away because once food is served to one student it can’t be served to another, he explained.
 

WHY weren't the lunch balances checked BEFORE the lunches were served.  This is sick and wrong on many levels to openly embarrass the kids like that.   

As for the parents, the school supposedly tried to call everyone on Monday, but admits it couldn't even get ahold of everyone, so at least some of the parents didn't even know the balances were nearing 0, let alone overdrawn.  Either way "oh, by the way your kids are screwed tomorrow" is not the kind of notice I would expect...

[Geo]

Unnecessarily harsh.
I think over here a school director could be sacked if he/she went this far.

[gwillybj]

Foolishness! Stupid waste! Why not feed the children and catch up with the bookkeeping after?

[Buster's Uncle]

Employees put on leave after school lunches taken
Associated Press
1 hour ago



Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, left, and Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, speak to reporters in the doorway of Uintah Elementary School before stoping in for school lunch Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, in Salt Lake City. A school district apologized Thursday to outraged parents after about 30 students at a Salt Lake City school had their lunches thrown out because of outstanding balances on their food accounts. Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen said the district is investigating what happened at Uintah Elementary and working to make sure it doesn't happen again. "This was a mistake. This was handled wrong," Olsen said during a news conference outside the school. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)



SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah school cafeteria manager and a district supervisor have been placed on paid leave while officials investigate why lunches were taken from students who owed money on food accounts, a district spokesman said Friday.

Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen said he could not identify or offer further details on the workers because of personnel privacy issues.

About 32 elementary school students had their lunches seized and thrown away on Tuesday after a district official arrived at Uintah (Yoo-IN-tah) Elementary to investigate a large number of overdue lunch accounts, Olsen has said.

The district has apologized to outraged parents and said it was working to ensure a similar incident didn't happen again.

Olsen has said students whose $2 meals were thrown out were given milk and fruit, a standard practice when students don't have lunch money.

"This was a mistake," Olsen said. "There shouldn't have been food taken away from these students once they went through that line."

The school is located in a middle-class neighborhood, and the district qualifies for federal reimbursement on lunches when students select certain offerings that are within nutritional guidelines.



Salt Lake City School District spokesman Jason Olsen speaks to reporters in the doorway of Uintah Elementary School Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, in Salt Lake City. A school district apologized Thursday to outraged parents after about 30 students at a Salt Lake City school had their lunches thrown out because of outstanding balances on their food accounts. Olsen said the district is investigating what happened at Uintah Elementary and working to make sure it doesn't happen again. "This was a mistake. This was handled wrong," Olsen said during a news conference outside the school. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)


Olsen said officials started notifying parents on Monday that many children were behind on the lunch payments.

The district was still investigating which workers decided to seize lunches the next day and how many were taking the meals from students.

A district policy requires that parents be given time to respond to account shortfalls.

Parent Erica Lukes said it was "humiliating and demoralizing" when deep dish pizzas and other items were taken away from her daughter and other children.

"People are upset, obviously, by the way this has been handled because it's really needless and quite mean," she said. "Regardless if it's $2, $5, you don't go about rectifying a situation with a balance by having a child go through that."

Her daughter reported children were upset and confused and some shared food with each other.

Olsen said school employees were upset by the situation and the district was getting angry messages from around the country.

He said the school principal has set up an account to cover lunch for students without money in their accounts, and other principals are taking steps to ensure that no more lunches are seized.

Two Utah lawmakers have said they were outraged and wanted to call attention to the policy.

If the district does not address the problem, lawmakers will look at whether state policies need to change, the senators said.

"To me, this rises to the level of bullying," State Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross said. "These children were humiliated in their own school, in front of their classmates."

Weiler was joined at a news conference by Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City.

The seizure of the lunches was first reported by The Salt Lake Tribune on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/employees-put-leave-school-lunches-taken-180138368.html

[gwillybj]

It sounds weird, but you can actually be allergic to the cold

Allergic to the Cold: How Cara Yacino Fights Cold Urticaria
By Jeffrey Kopman Published: Jan 30, 2014, 3:45 PM EST weather.com

A brutal winter has caused many frustrated Americans to exclaim their hatred for the cold. Winter might not be the favorite season of many Americans — but for people with cold urticaria, such as 20-year-old Cara Yacino, from Douglas, Mass., the feeling goes beyond a longing for 4th of July barbecues and the beach filled days of summer.

In June 2013, Yacino was diagnosed with the condition after a trip to Boston began with a Dunkin Donuts iced mocha and an “engorged” hand.

“I was holding [the mocha], and I realize my hand that was holding the iced mocha started swelling up and was really painful,” Yacino told weather.com. “It was kind of itchy, and it looked different (after) comparing my two hands.”

Cold urticaria is an allergic reaction to cold temperatures. Also known as cold hives, the condition causes redness, itching and swelling after exposure to the cold, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“My mom told me to stop drinking [the mocha] because [the reaction] might have been [from] something in the coffee, like maybe hazelnuts,” explained Yacino.

Yacino promptly stopped drinking the coffee on her way to the New England Aquarium in Boston. But the visit to a touch tank proved her condition was more than a hazelnut allergy.

“They had a touch tank — a shark and ray touch tank — and I stuck my arm in, like everyone else, so that the rays could swim by and touch my hand,” she said. “I was in the tank for maybe like 10 minutes. I pulled my arm out and within five minutes that arm was covered in hives.”

“These are conditions that are not so common, but we do encounter individuals who have hives or swelling with exposure to cold,” David Lang, M.D., section head of allergy and immunology at the Cleveland Clinic, told weather.com. “They develop localized redness, itchiness and swelling, usually confined to cold exposed areas.”

“Random things like that started happening pretty frequently. Within the next couple of days, I got hives on my leg at one point from being outside in the wind and rain when it was like 40 degrees, maybe 45,” Cara added.

After a little research from her father and an ice cube test from her allergist, Cara was diagnosed with cold urticaria. But why did the condition first arise after 20 years of life in a cold-weather climate?

“My allergist asked me a couple questions about if I had gotten sick, like a virus, within the past couple of weeks, and as it turned out I had,” Yacino explained. “I had just recovered from a fever. I had a fever for a day and a half, and [my allergist] said certain viruses can trigger an immune response that can make you allergic to something like that.”

“There is something called primary acquired cold urticaria, and another category of individuals who have secondary acquired cold urticaria. Patients with secondary acquired cold urticaria may be related to an underlying condition, like an infection,” explained Dr. Lang. “It effects patients of all ages, from infants to the elderly. In some cases it can occur spontaneously, and in some cases it can go away in a few years.”

Signs and Symptoms of an Outbreak

Diagnosing Yacino’s newfound problems with the cold was only the beginning. Despite the record breaking cold winter, she has actually handled the disorder “pretty well.”

“If I don’t take [medicine] I’ve noticed a difference — it can be really painful. The hives aren’t like normal hives. They’re not super itchy — they actually burn, it’s really uncomfortable,” she said. “Let’s say my legs or calves are exposed. First I’ll probably have to be outside for five minutes before it starts — it [doesn’t happen] right away — but first thing I’ll notice is my legs will start to burn, almost like a really bad sunburn,” she described. “It’ll start to burn. I’ll look down and usually they’ll be covered in really densely populated welts. I’ve had reactions last up to a day, and I’ve had reactions up to an hour, at the minimum.”

And her outbreaks don’t limit themselves to winter months.

“On the Fourth of July, I went over my best friend’s house, and his pool was 80 degrees. I checked the temperature, and I was in his pool for 15 minutes and when I started noticing that my vision was getting blurry,” she recalled. “I got out quickly, and I noticed my whole body was covered in hives. I almost needed to use the EpiPen, but I ended up taking my hyper heptadine, and it went away in like 10 minutes. But it was pretty scary.”

“It was 80 degrees,” Yacino reiterated.

“In a number of these episodes, the symptoms are when the exposed skin is rewarmed,” said Dr. Lang. “What happens when you get out of a shower or pool is that the water starts to evaporate, and causes cooling.”

Living with the Condition

Since that incident, Cara has learned to live with her condition.

“My mom bought out most of L.L. Beans catalogue for me,” she joked. “So I have this great down coat that goes down to my ankles, and it’s super warm, and it cuts the wind chill.”

“Usually if I know I’m going to be around cold things, and there is no control I have over it, I’ll take Zyrtec in the morning. That usually helps a lot, and then if I still have a reaction I have cyproheptadine — which is a pretty heavy-duty version of Benadryl,” said Cara. “So I’ll take one of those, and then obviously if my throat starts closing up I’ll use my EpiPen. I haven’t had to use it yet, thank God, but I hope it doesn’t have to come to that.”

Dr. Lang supported Cara’s decision to still go out in the cold.

“Someone in Cleveland — with negative wind chills — it’s important that they dress warmly and limit their exposure,” he said. “Cold can’t be avoided completely. We don’t want our patients to hibernate.”

Explaining Cold Urticaria

In an effort to spread awareness and learn about others, Cara reached out to Reddit, a popular internet forum.

“I have never met anybody in person with this condition. I was curious to see who suffered the same thing or something similar,” she explained. “I think there needs to be more awareness because it’s life-threatening. There are certain degrees of severity, but as a whole it’s a life-threatening condition. It’s not something to be laughed at or taken lightly.”

“A lot of people who have this feel that it hasn’t been taken seriously or even believed. I’ve had people be like ‘no, no you’re joking,’” she recalled. “It’s not fun.”

http://www.weather.com/health/allergic-cold-how-young-woman-fights-cold-urticaria-20140129

[gwillybj]

http://earthsky.org/human-world/7000-year-old-hunter-gatherer-had-dark-skin-blue-eyes

EarthSky // Human World, Science Wire
Release Date: Jan 28, 2014

7,000-year-old hunter-gatherer had dark skin, blue eyes

Researchers analyzed the DNA from a tooth belonging to the 7,000-year-old remains of European hunter-gatherer to determine his appearance.


Image credit: PELOPANTON / CSIC

They say the man – who scientists named La Braña 1 – had blue eyes and dark skin.

The remains were recovered at La Braña-Arintero site, a cave in Valdelugueros in Spain in 2006. Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, was the leader of the study. He said:

"The biggest surprise was to discover that this individual possessed African versions in the genes that determine the light pigmentation of the current Europeans, which indicates that he had dark skin, although we can not know the exact shade.

"Even more surprising was to find that he possessed the genetic variations that produce blue eyes in current Europeans, resulting in a unique phenotype in a genome that is otherwise clearly northern European."

The man lived in the Mesolithic, a period from 10,000 to 5,000 years ago, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic, that ends with the advent of agriculture and livestock farming, coming from the Middle-East. The arrival of the Neolithic, with a carbohydrate-based diet and new pathogens transmitted by domesticated animals, entailed metabolic and immunological challenges that were reflected in genetic adaptations of post-Mesolithic people. Among these is the ability to digest lactose, which the La Braña individual could not do.


Image credit: PELOPANTON / CSIC

The study of the genome suggests that current populations nearest to La Braña 1 are in northern Europe, such as Sweden and Finland.

Lalueza-Fox said that these findings indicate that there is genetic continuity in the populations of central and western Eurasia.

The research is published in Nature.

Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140126134643.htm

[gwillybj]

7,000-year-old hunter-gatherer had dark skin, blue eyes

I swear this guy looks like my dad by the end of summer. He'd get dark like that and let his beard start growing out for deer seaon.

[Buster's Uncle]

Norwegian boy takes parents' car to visit grandparents, claims he's a dwarf
Reuters
8 hours ago



OSLO (Reuters) - A ten-year-old Norwegian boy came up with a novel excuse after he drove his parents' car into a snowy ditch on Wednesday morning: he told police he was a dwarf who forgot his driving license.

The boy lives near Dokka, a town about 110 kilometers north of Oslo. Sometime before 0600 local time, he loaded his 18-month old sister into the car and headed for their grandparents in Valdres, about 60 kilometers away, local police said.

He drove more than 10 kilometers before he veered off the road. A snowplow driver found him and alerted the police.

"The parents woke up and discovered that the children were missing and that someone had taken off with their car. They were pretty upset, as you can imagine," said Baard Christiansen, a spokesman for the Vest Oppland police district.

"The boy told the snowplow driver that he was a dwarf and that he had forgotten his driver's license at home."

Police said no charges would be filed and the case was closed.

"We have talked to them, and I'm pretty sure they're going to pay very close attention both to their children and to their car keys in the future," Christiansen said.

The children were not injured and the car was not damaged, police said.

http://news.yahoo.com/norwegian-boy-takes-parents-39-car-visit-grandparents-141745097--sector.html

[Geo]

7,000-year-old hunter-gatherer had dark skin, blue eyes

I swear this guy looks like my dad by the end of summer. He'd get dark like that and let his beard start growing out for deer seaon.

Your dad must be very young-looking for his age.