By Helene Smith
Happy awful new year.
(ENLARGE FOR PROPER VIEWING)
Posted on December 30, 2016
Beachwood Photo Booth: Season’s Greetings
(North Pole Temps Could Climb 50 Degrees Above Normal
By Andrea Germanos/Common Dreams
Santa will likely be feeling toasty as he does his final checks on the naughty-or-nice list because temperatures at the North Pole on Thursday are forecast to be as much as 50°F above normal.
Temperatures are expected to climb to near the freezing point of 32°F, computer models show.
Zachary Labe, a doctoral student researching the Arctic at the University of California-Irvine, wrote on Twitter that the “persistence and magnitude of above average Arctic temperatures continues to remain quite impressive.”
(ENLARGE)
Posted on December 22, 2016
Economic Opportunity, Fragile Fisheries Drive Aquaculture In Wisconsin
By Scott Gordon/WisContext
Around the world, an increasing proportion of the fish and other seafood people eat, catch, use as bait or put in aquariums is raised in controlled environments in a practice known as aquaculture.
This industry is growing quickly in Wisconsin, with fish-based operations ranging from small family ponds to large-scale farms like Rushing Waters in Palmyra. A few aquaculture businesses in the state are even experimenting with raising shrimp.
Researchers are applying the Wisconsin Idea to this approach to growing food, especially at the Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility, a project of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and partner of the UW Sea Grant Institute.
Posted on December 21, 2016
Wisconsin Cheese Production Continues To Grow
By Hope Kirwan/Wisconsin Public Radio
Wisconsin continues to increase monthly cheese production, marking more than two years of rising outputs.
The latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows Wisconsin produced almost 270 million pounds of cheese in October. That’s almost 1 percent more than October 2015 and about 6 percent more than in 2014.
As dairy farmers continue to struggle with an oversupply of milk, dairy experts say cheese shows the strongest potential for growth in the dairy industry.
“The cheese market has held up better than we anticipated with all the milk because the retail and food service demand has stayed very, very strong,” said Bob Cropp, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Posted on December 20, 2016
Making Weekend Plans Can Actually Ruin Your Weekend
By Selin Malkoc/The Conversation
Have you ever found yourself dreading a leisurely activity you had eagerly scheduled days or weeks in advance?
I first caught myself doing this a few years ago when I was traveling home to Turkey. I had excitedly made plans to meet up with some old friends. But to my surprise, as the date approached, I started to feel reluctant and unenthusiastic about these long-awaited reunions.
“I have to go get lunch with my friend,” I’d grouse to others, making it sound like a chore.
Was I an anomaly? Or do other people feel this way too? We increasingly rely on scheduling to organize our lives: phone calls, appointments, dates – and, yes, fun social activities. But can planning leisure activities also start to feel like work, too? Why might they become a source of dread?
Posted on December 19, 2016
Beachwood Photo Booth: Economy Heating
(Hoverboard Amusement Park Is Opening In West Dundee
By Brad Garlin/HoverPark
A new concept, HoverPark is making its home in the new LifeZone360 sports complex/family fun center in West Dundee, Illinois.
HoverPark provides training for people who have never been on a hoverboard before, in addition to a variety of exciting and challenging hover courses/sections, including timed obstacle courses, hover hoops, ramps areas and an open-hover area.
HoverPark provides a revolutionary, state-of-the-art harness-based training system that eliminates the risk of those nasty backwards falls, often experienced by first-timers.
A visit to HoverPark makes it safer to experience a hoverboard, provides access to top-of-the-line UL2272 approved Swagtron hoverboards, and challenges experienced hoverboarders with advanced courses, in the safest possible environment.
Posted on December 15, 2016
A Rob Sherman Remembrance
By Nikki Golden
Rob Sherman was a fixture of my childhood, growing up in Buffalo Grove, as he was often protesting something going on in our school district, where his son was a few years younger than me. I believe it was often the Pledge, and of course, you’d see that car with his ATHEIST plates around town.
In high school at Buffalo Grove HS, I was on the newspaper, and two other dorky friends and I started to cover the school board meetings, which hadn’t been covered before. My junior year of high school, the school board took three days away from our Winter Break, so instead of getting the full two weeks, we’d come back on a Wednesday. Their argument was it was too hard to get the requisite however many days the school year had to be otherwise.
So my two dorky friends and I created a petition, and having contacts from the other school newspapers, spread this petition district-wide and presented it to the school board. So you can imagine, we’re quite nervous about this and get to the board meeting, and everyone’s getting settled, and in walks Rob Sherman, who is also on the agenda to discuss the winter break issue. So we’re like, GAH! He’s probably wanting them to eliminate it all together because of the holidays, blah blah. We think we’re totally screwed because once he had something in his craw about it infringing on his atheist rights, he pursued it to the nth degree.
Posted on December 14, 2016
Winter-Proof Your Pet
By The Chicago Veterinary Medical Association
The start of dangerously cold, adverse weather conditions requires immediate action from pet owners. The Chicago Veterinary Medical Association provides the following guidelines for the public to keep their pets safe from weather hazards and prevent serious health threats.
Cold weather can be as dangerous for pets, as it is for humans. Pets may have a more difficult time regulating their body temperature, and may be more susceptible to problems from extreme temperatures if they have a condition such as diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, or hormonal imbalances.
Since cold weather may worsen some medical conditions such as arthritis, it’s crucial for pets to receive a regular preventative care examination from a veterinarian to detect any potential diseases and other health problems.
Posted on December 13, 2016