Breaking News Thread Version 2.0

[disco]

Boats collide in anti-whaling clash in Antarctica

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6800867.html

SYDNEY — A conservation group's boat had its bow sheared off and was taking on water Wednesday after it collided with a Japanese whaling ship in the frigid waters of Antarctica, the group said. The boat's six crew members were safely rescued.  [more but I cut it off]

----

Okay, I don't agree with Japans whaling (at all) but I think that group sorta had it coming.  The pro-whales place themselves in harms way then cry when they get hit?  Come on.  And the sympathetic comments by the readers.    If I was the Japanese I think I'd depth charge the whales just to p*ss everybody off.     More realistically, I'd hunt by helicopter and sue the opposition into oblivion if they brought that bird down. 

[disco]

brrr!!!

Frigid blast barreling toward Houston area

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6800637.html

To Houston's list of Official Seasons — Summer, Not Summer — we may be inclined to add another come Thursday. Emphatically Not Summer.

An Arctic blast strong enough to make even liberals denounce Al Gore is expected to race through Southeast Texas late tonight and send temperatures plummeting. The National Weather Service expect temperatures to drop into the lower 70's by Thursday morning.

------

My emphasis in bold.  This sucks!  I'm going to have to dig out my jacket or some long sleeve shirts.

[Peelz]

lower 70's?

wuss. 

[Krandall]

brrr!!!

Frigid blast barreling toward Houston area

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6800637.html

To Houston's list of Official Seasons — Summer, Not Summer — we may be inclined to add another come Thursday. Emphatically Not Summer.

An Arctic blast strong enough to make even liberals denounce Al Gore is expected to race through Southeast Texas late tonight and send temperatures plummeting. The National Weather Service expect temperatures to drop into the lower 70's by Thursday morning.

------

My emphasis in bold.  This sucks!  I'm going to have to dig out my jacket or some long sleeve shirts.

CRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That's like 90 degrees warmer than we were this weekend.!!!!

[Krandall]

Synthetic Alcohol Gives Drinkers a Buzz Minus the Hangover, Addiction
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-01/synthetic-alcohol-gives-drinkers-pleasant-buzz-without-hangover-addiction

Still feeling the sting of New Year's Eve all these days later? A synthetic alcohol substitute developed from chemicals similar in composition to Valium could give users the pleasant feelings of tipsiness without affecting the parts of the brain that lead to barroom brawls, crippling addiction, and sleeping in your car.

Unlike all those bunk point-of-sale hangover remedies, this headache-eluding synthetic is being developed by some serious brainpower at Imperial College London. Professor David Nutt, one of Britain's top drug experts, was recently relieved of his position as a government advisor for comments about cannabis and MDMA. Now, he's trying to change the way Britons think, and feel, about getting drunk.

Related Articles
   Drinking Alcohol May Make Head Injuries Less Harmful
   Science Confirms the Obvious: Those Who Work Around Alcohol More Likely to Abuse It
   Making Alcohol Making Easy
Tags
Science, Clay Dillow, addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, drinking, health, synthetics, Valium
By harnessing benzodiazepines like diazepam, the chief ingredient in anti-anxiety med Valium, Nutt sees a future of drinking without becoming addicted, belligerent or -- and here's the kicker -- intoxicated. Using one of thousands of possible benzos, researchers are working to tailor a colorless, tasteless synthetic that could eventually replace the alcohol content in beer, wine and liquor.

Drinkers could toss back as many glasses of the swill as they want but would remain only mildly drunk from first drink to last, keeping good-timers within legal limits whether they like it or not. If one did find the buzz too intense for a particular task -- say, driving home after a long night at the pub -- those warm feelings of inebriation could be instantly turned off with a simple antidote pill that mutes the synthetic's effects on brain receptors.

The skeptics (and delinquents) among us wonder exactly why Nutt and company think that people who enjoy getting roaring drunk would voluntarily switch to a tipple that lacks the knock-down power of authentic alcohol, but as a matter of public health it's not such a far-fetched idea. After all, alcohol has been both a bringer of good cheer and destroyer of lives for thousands of years now, and a 21st-century update to an ancient favorite could be in order. In the meantime, we're sticking with scotch.

[disco]

brrr!!!

Frigid blast barreling toward Houston area

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6800637.html

To Houston's list of Official Seasons — Summer, Not Summer — we may be inclined to add another come Thursday. Emphatically Not Summer.

An Arctic blast strong enough to make even liberals denounce Al Gore is expected to race through Southeast Texas late tonight and send temperatures plummeting. The National Weather Service expect temperatures to drop into the lower 70's by Thursday morning.

------

My emphasis in bold.  This sucks!  I'm going to have to dig out my jacket or some long sleeve shirts.

I lied.  That's a real news story but I did quote change.     It's cold as  down here!  Supposed to be in the 20s by Thursday or Friday. 

[Peelz]

20's? I repeat: wuss!!!!

[disco]

   That's why I'm living down here in the south.  Warm clothes?  What's that?

[russ-russ]

We haven't made it above the 20's in weeks.  Supposed to see low 30's this weekend, maybe some of this effing snow will melt.

[Krandall]

Frigid weather hits Midwest, -52 wind chill in ND

DES MOINES, Iowa – Snow was piled so high in Iowa that drivers couldn't see across intersections and a North Dakota snowblower repair shop was overwhelmed with business as heavy snow and wind chills as low as 52 below zero blasted much of the Midwest on Thursday.

Frigid weather also was gripping the South, where a rare cold snap was expected to bring snow and ice Thursday to states from South Carolina to Louisiana. Forecasters said wind chills could drop to near zero at night in some areas.

Dangerously cold wind chill levels hit the Midwest early Thursday including 52 below zero in northern North Dakota, negative 40 in parts of South Dakota and minus 27 in northeast Nebraska, according to the National Weather Service. Equally disturbing chills were expected overnight Friday.

"Temperatures are going to be nose-diving," said Billy Williams, a weather service meteorologist in Sioux Falls, S.D. "Winds are slowing dropping off but will be more than compensated for."

An additional 10 inches of snow was expected in Iowa, already buried by more than 2 feet of snow in December, while up to 9 inches could fall in southeast North Dakota that forecasters warned would create hazardous zero-visibility driving conditions. Wind gusts of 30 miles per hour were expected in Illinois — along with a foot of snow — while large drifts were anticipated in Nebraska and Iowa.

Joe Dietrich said he had to turn away dozens of customers this week from his snowblower repair shop in Bismarck, N.D.

"My building is only so big and I can only take so many," Dietrich said.

The weather hasn't let up since sweeping into the eastern U.S. earlier this week. Five straight days of double-digit subzero low temperatures, including negative 19, were recorded by the National Weather Service office in Chanhassen, Minn., a Twin Cities suburb.

"It's brutally cold, definitely brutal," meteorologist Tony Zaleski said.

Several recent deaths have been blamed on the cold. An 88-year-old woman died of hypothermia in her unheated Chicago home, an Alzheimer's sufferer died after wandering into his yard in Nashville, Tenn., and a homeless man was found dead in a tent in South Carolina, authorities said. Kansas City police said a man involved in a multi-car pileup Wednesday died after jumping a barrier wall in the dark, apparently to avoid sliding cars, and falling about 80 feet.

Slick roads were blamed for scores of accidents. In Indiana, a driver was reported killed in a crash with a school bus near Delphi on Thursday. In Iowa, a driver died Wednesday when slamming into the back of a semitrailer that had slowed for an accident near Des Moines.

In preparation for worsening conditions, more than 500 flights were grounded at Chicago's airports. The Chicago Department of Aviation reported more than 400 canceled flights at O'Hare International Airport and more than 100 canceled flights at Midway International Airport. Frost on planes' wings delayed seven early flights in Tampa, Fla.

Just one day into the 2010 legislative session, the Missouri Senate canceled its Thursday session because of weather. The House planned only a technical session, which allows bills to be processed without the attention of most lawmakers.

Freeze warnings covered nearly all of Florida with temperatures expected to drop into the 20s. Freezing iguanas were seen falling out of trees in Florida; experts say the cold-blooded reptiles become immobilized when the temperature falls into the 40s and they lose their grip on the tree.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear declared a state of emergency in Perry County on Wednesday after water line breaks left areas without water.

Schools in parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia canceled classes because of the weather. Major roads were closed in South Dakota, Minnesota, North Carolina and Virginia.

Salt had no effect on the Twin Cities' ice-rutted streets, and the deep snow left over from a Christmas storm has hardened into rock-hard blocks. The conditions helped business at Roger's Master Collision, an auto-body repair shop in Plymouth, Minn.

"A lot of people sliding on the ice, then hitting the snowbanks. They're frozen up pretty hard," said store manager Kirk Suchomel, estimating the shop is averaging 15 repair estimates a day. "I'm sure we're going to stay busy."

In Iowa, officials in Des Moines warned that a $3 million annual snow removal budget would likely be exhausted with this week's storm. Another 10 inches of snow was forecast overnight — on top of the more than 28 inches of snow that fell there in December.

Public Works Director Bill Stowe said the city would tap a $6 million road maintenance fund to cover snow clearing for the rest of the season. Snow that had been plowed into tall piles at intersections was set to be dumped into a lake.

"It can be a half-million dollar operation, depending on the amount of snow," Stowe said.

[Peelz]

freakin yay

[Krandall]

Yeah, our apartment parking lot. is literally 2 tracks and about 4 inches of ice.

[disco]

Freezing iguanas were seen falling out of trees in Florida; experts say the cold-blooded reptiles become immobilized when the temperature falls into the 40s and they lose their grip on the tree.

  I'd have a pet iquana or two after that.

[Krandall]

WTF....

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/h-m-and-wal-mart-destroy-and-trash-unsold-goods-562909/
H&M and Wal-Mart destroy and trash unsold goods

This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so they are unwearable.

This unsettling discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City. Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor. On December 7, she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, "gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men's jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls."

The New York Times points out that one-third of the city's population is poor, which makes this behavior not only wasteful and sad, but downright irresponsible. Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Melissa Hill, acted surprised that these items were found, claiming they typically donate all unworn merchandise to charity. When reporters went around the corner from H&M to a collections drop-off for charity organization New York Cares, spokesperson Colleen Farrell said, "We'd be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us."

After several days of no response from H&M, the company made a statement today, promising to stop destroying the garments at the midtown Manhattan location. They said they will donate the items to charity. H&M spokeswoman Nicole Christie said, "It will not happen again," and that the company would make sure none of the other locations would do so either. Hopefully that's the final word.

[Peelz]

Lenovo IdeaCentre Dual Core 2.4Ghz Desktop
$299.99 + $5 shipping
http://www.woot.com/Default.aspx?WootSaleId=11534

=============================================

Vizio 47" 1080p HDTV
$649.99 + $5 shipping
http://sellout.woot.com/Default.aspx?WootSaleId=11535&ts=1262960376&sig=98c60a393b1038b4

=============================================

Kid A  by Radiohead
$1.99
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0019R7XXU

quote before the fix.

thread fail