Ibuprofen linked to male infertility, study says

By Susan Scutti, CNN
Jan. 8, 2018

Ibuprofen has a negative impact on the testicles of young men, a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found. When taking ibuprofen in doses commonly used by athletes, a small sample of young men developed a hormonal condition that typically begins, if at all, during middle age. This condition is linked to reduced fertility.
Advil and Motrin are two brand names for ibuprofen, an over-the-counter pain reliever.

•••••

Jégou and a team of French and Danish researchers had been exploring the health effects when a mother-to-be took any one of three mild pain relievers found in medicine chests around the globe: aspirin, acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol and sold under the brand name Tylenol) and ibuprofen.

Their early experiments, published in several papers, showed that when taken during pregnancy, all three of these mild medicines affected the testicles of male babies.

•••••

a recent analysis published in the journal Human Reproduction Update found that sperm counts of men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand are plunging. Researchers recorded a 52% decline in sperm concentration and a 59% decline in total sperm count over a nearly 40-year period ending in 2011.

•••••

"There is evidence that some medications are particularly harmful to the male reproductive system, including testosterone, opioids, antidepressants, antipsychotics, immune modulators and even the over-the-counter antacid cimetidine (Tagamet)," she said. "However, prescribing providers rarely mention these adverse effects with patients when prescribing these medications.

•••••

Links

How Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/how-actual-smart-people-talk-about-themselves/549878/?utm_source=fbb


Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10626367


The mind-bending physics of Scandinavian sea-level change
http://sciencenordic.com/mind-bending-physics-scandinavian-sea-level-change

The Bottom of The Ocean Has Started Sinking Under The Weight of Melting Glaciers

PETER DOCKRILL
8 JAN 2018

Decades of measurements and predictions of sea level rise could have underestimated the scale of the problem, experts warn, due to scientists not accounting for the weighty, warping effects of our ever burgeoning oceans.

Existing assessments of sea level rise haven't factored in that as the total ocean mass increases due to melting glaciers and ice sheets, the weight of all that extra water pushes down on the sinking ocean floor, deforming the seabed – and disguising just how much the oceans are truly swelling.

"The Earth itself is not a rigid sphere, it's a deforming ball," geoscientist Thomas Frederikse from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands told Earther.

"With climate change, we do not only change temperature."

The implications, according to Frederikse and his team, is that as the ocean bottom subsides elastically, the actual increasing volume of the ocean – called barystatic sea level rise – is masked from measurements based on satellite observations.

That's because satellite readings only tell us one side of the story: geocentric sea level rise, as seen from the surface side.

•••••

Overall, the researchers say purely satellite-derived assessments of sea level rise for the period could have underestimated barystatic sea level rise by as much as 8 percent – which is definitely something we need to think about in the future, especially this hidden variable will only become more significant as the world gets hotter and sea level rise accelerates.

"In a future warming climate, the sea-level rise induced by ice sheets will increase, and therefore, the magnitude of the bias due to elastic ocean-bottom deformation will grow," the team writes.

•••••

Links

“The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience.”
— B. F. Skinner


Temperatures In Australia Hit 117 Degrees As Sydney Sees Hottest Day In 78 Years
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sydney-sees-hottest-day-in-78-years_us_5a522adee4b089e14dbb94e0


Shaun Inguanzo from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service said most blood donations went to cancer patients — largely because chemotherapy destroyed their ability to create their own blood cells.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-07/dead-womans-heartfelt-call-for-blood-donations/9309530


Debunking the Tragedy of the Commons
https://news.cnrs.fr/opinions/debunking-the-tragedy-of-the-commons?utm_content=bufferdbbf0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

California: Severe flu brings medicine shortages, packed ERs and a rising death toll

By Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad
Jan 06, 2018

So many people have fallen sick with influenza in California that pharmacies have run out of flu medicines, emergency rooms are packed, and the death toll is outpacing that of previous years. Health officials said Friday that 27 people younger than 65 have died of the flu in California since October, compared with three at the same time last year. Los Angeles Times

Links

Dogs Left Outside In The Cold Have Died And Been Found ‘Frozen Solid’
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dogs-left-outside-cold-died-204224858.html


A top hospital knew this surgeon was accused of raping patients but kept him on staff, report says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/01/05/a-top-hospital-knew-this-surgeon-was-accused-of-raping-patients-but-kept-him-on-staff-report-says/?utm_term=.594bfdf1f879


Michael Wolff Did What Every Other White House Reporter Is Too Cowardly to Do
https://www.gq.com/story/michael-wolff-white-house-trump-access



Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
....Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star.....
....to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!
4:27 AM - 6 Jan 2018


Blizzard snarls air traffic at JFK, as 2 planes collide and hundreds of flights are delayed
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/06/blizzard-snarls-air-traffic-at-jfk-as-2-planes-collide-and-hundreds-of-flights-are-delayed.html


Takata Recalls Another 3.3 Million Air Bags Under U.S. Order
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-06/takata-recalls-another-3-3-million-air-bags-under-u-s-order


How Would Jesus Drive?
[For sure, not like most of the people in the Atlanta area. I have long thought about getting a bumper sticker that says "How Would Drive?"]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/opinion/how-would-jesus-drive.html?smid=fb-share


HP recalling laptop batteries over fire and burn risks
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/trending-now/hp-recalling-laptop-batteries-over-fire-and-burn-risks/677462527

Links

Alleged White Supremacist Is Charged With Terrorism After Stopping Amtrak Train
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/05/575960858/alleged-white-supremacist-is-charged-with-terrorism-after-stopping-amtrak-train


NASA: Hole in Earth's Ozone Layer Finally Closing Up Because Humans Did Something About It
http://www.newsweek.com/nasa-hole-earths-ozone-layer-finally-closing-humans-did-something-771922


Scientists have suggestions on how to study the Earth from space — if Congress will let them
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/5/16851450/national-academies-earth-observations-decadal-survey-nasa-noaa-usgs


What Is This “Bomb Cyclone” Threatening the U.S.?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-this-ldquo-bomb-cyclone-rdquo-threatening-the-u-s/


Why climate change may be to blame for dangerous cold blanketing eastern U.S.
"'Persistent' is the key word here, as overall we expect that record-breaking cold events will occur less often in the future but they will likely last longer," she wrote.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/why-climate-change-may-be-blame-dangerous-cold-blanketing-eastern-n834986


Roy Moore accuser's Gadsden home burns; arson investigation underway
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2018/01/roy_moore_accusers_home_burns.html

Links

North Korea Accidentally Hit Its Own City In Missile Test, Report Says
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/01/04/north-korea-missile-accident/


How to protect your PC from the major Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3245810/security/how-to-protect-your-pc-meltdown-spectre-cpu-flaws.html


Trump administration plans to allow oil and gas drilling off nearly all US coast
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/trump-administration-plans-to-allow-oil-and-gas-drilling-off-nearly-all-us-coast


Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved


Moose set loose: Canada snowmobilers rescue animal buried in snow
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/04/moose-rescue-canada-snow


Common pesticide can make migrating birds lose their way, research shows
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/29/common-pesticide-can-make-migrating-birds-lose-their-way-research-shows


If You're Not Paying for It, You're the Product
http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2018/01/if-youre-not-paying-for-it-youre-product.html


Arkansas mosque forgives, pays fine of man who defaced its walls
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-tuesday-edition-1.4469931/arkansas-mosque-forgives-pays-fine-of-man-who-defaced-its-walls-1.4470595


The Republican Tax Plan Contains More Middle-Class Pain Than Even Its Critics Are Saying
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-republican-tax-plan-contains-more-middle-class-pain-than-even-its-critics-are-saying?mbid=social_facebook_aud_dev_kw_paid-the-republican-tax-plan-contains-more-middle-class-pain-than-even-its-critics-are-saying&kwp_0=610397&kwp_4=2164268&kwp_1=903983

Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn

Please consider donating to The Guardian to help them continue their investigative reporting.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved

Damian Carrington
Jan. 4, 2017

Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.

Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. The coastal dead zones result from fertiliser and sewage running off the land and into the seas.

•••••

The oceans feed more than 500 million people, especially in poorer nations, and provide jobs for 350 million people. But at least 500 dead zones have now been reported near coasts, up from fewer than 50 in 1950. Lack of monitoring in many regions means the true number may be much higher.

The open ocean has natural low oxygen areas, usually off the west coast of continents due to the way the rotation of the Earth affects ocean currents. But these dead zones have expanded dramatically, increasing by millions of square kilometres since 1950, roughly equivalent to the area of the European Union.

•••••

Furthermore, the level of oxygen in all ocean waters is falling, with 2% – 77bn tonnes – being lost since 1950. This can reduce growth, impair reproduction and increase disease, the scientists warn. One irony is that warmer waters not only hold less oxygen but also mean marine organisms have to breathe faster, using up oxygen more quickly.

There are also dangerous feedback mechanisms. Microbes that proliferate at very low oxygen levels produce lots of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

•••••

Avoid Romaine Lettuce for Now, Consumer Reports Says

https://www.consumerreports.org/food-safety/avoid-romaine-lettuce-for-now/

By Trisha Calvo
January 03, 2018



Over the past seven weeks, 58 people in the U.S. and Canada have become ill from a dangerous strain of E. coli bacteria, likely from eating romaine lettuce. In the U.S., the infections have occurred in 13 states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, and Washington state). Five people in the U.S. have been hospitalized and one has died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There has also been one death in Canada.

Canadian health authorities identified romaine lettuce as the source of the outbreak in Canada, and are advising people in the country’s eastern provinces to consider eating other types of salad greens until further notice. In the U.S., government health officials are investigating the outbreaks, but have stopped short of recommending people avoid romaine lettuce or any other food.



This strain of E. coli (0157:H7) produces a toxin that in some cases can lead to serious illness, kidney failure, and even death.

That’s why Consumer Reports' food safety experts are advising that consumers stop eating romaine lettuce until the cause of the outbreak is identified and the offending product is removed from store shelves.

“Even though we can’t say with 100 percent certainty that romaine lettuce is the cause of the E. coli outbreak in the U.S., a greater degree of caution is appropriate given that lettuce is almost always consumed raw,” says James Rogers, Ph.D., Director of Food Safety and Research at Consumer Reports.

While anyone can get sick if they are infected with E. coli 0157:H7, young children, the elderly, and anyone who has a condition (such as cancer or diabetes) that weakens the immune system are at greater risk. “People in these groups should be particularly vigilant about avoiding romaine lettuce,” says Rogers.

•••••

Links

25% of Earth will be drier even if Paris climate targets met, study predicts
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/global-warming-aridification-1.4469440


Newspaper exec says he’s sorry for spanking reporters and calling one a ‘bad girl’
http://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/article192705319.html

USDA secretary announces halt on school nutrition standards

https://www.csmonitor.com/EqualEd/2017/0502/USDA-secretary-announces-halt-on-school-nutrition-standards?cmpid=FB

Weston Williams
Christian Science Monitor
May 2, 2017

United States Department of Agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue has had a busy first week. Only six days after his appointment to the new position, Mr. Perdue announced Monday that he would roll back Obama-era school nutrition standards, a move that has prompted criticism from a number of nutrition experts around the country.

Perdue called for a relaxation of the standards in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act introduced in 2010, which had been championed by both former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama. The rollback would reduce whole-grain requirements, allow higher levels of sodium entrees, and restore higher-fat and sweetened milk to school cafeterias nationwide.

•••••

"[Studies show] that for some students it's the only nutritious food consumed throughout the day," Ms. Griffin tells The Christian Science Monitor in an email.

And for many poor students, a school lunch is the only meal that can be counted on as a regular source of food, she adds, making school food nutrition an important social and nutritional component of young children's lives – something that she says cannot simply be ignored to make things a little easier on school pocketbooks.

•••••

Rent for the Poor Really Is Too High

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-27/rent-for-the-poor-really-is-too-high

by Noah Smith
December 27, 2017

Are poor Americans doing better than they used to, or worse? It’s hard to know, because so many important things in life -- social status, emotional health, human relationships -- can’t be measured. But in purely material terms, many things have improved.

Homelessness is down. Government assistance to families with children has lowered the official child poverty rate. Hunger has fallen as well. Though the country doesn’t do a great job at providing the poor with health care, things have improved marginally since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. What’s more, most of the poor now possess items that you would find in most middle-class households; according to a 2011 Census report, 53 percent of households in the lowest income quintile have a computer, 65 percent have a clothes dryer, and 38 percent have a washer, dryer, refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and a telephone.

However, there is at least one way in which poor American families are being increasingly squeezed -- the rent. A new research note from the Federal Reserve Board’s Jeff Larrimore and Jenny Schuetz of the Brookings Institution shows a combination of rising rents and falling incomes among the poorest fifth of households.

Though a substantial number of Americans of all income groups are homeowners, poor Americans are more likely to rent:

In real terms, the rent paid by low-income households has risen modestly -- about 9 percent. Meanwhile, real income for the bottom fifth fell by about the same amount. Squeezed between smaller paychecks and higher rents, the poor have less and less money each month to spend.

Larimore and Schuetz estimate that poor American households pay more than 55 percent of their earnings in rent, compared with less than 30 percent for households in the second-lowest quintile. Despite much public outcry over rising rents in the U. S., most non-poor households are still able to afford shelter without a severe economic burden.

More money spent on rent means less for everything else. Larimore and Schuetz find that the average household in the bottom fifth has only $476 to spend every month after paying rent:

This is down from about $600 a month at the turn of the century, in inflation-adjusted terms.

•••••

But as Schuetz notes, those big rent burdens harm poor households in ways not reflected in their cash spending. When you pay more than half of your income in rent, even a small or temporary dip in earning can be enough to put you out on the street.

•••••

Small wonder, then, that lack of affordable housing leaves permanent scars on children who experience it. Having a secure place to sleep is one of the most basic human needs -- it has not changed since the first caveman crawled under a rock to escape the rain.

So how can the U.S. solve the housing problem for its poorer citizens?

•••••

Links

Hawaiian Airlines Flight Takes Off In 2018, Lands In 2017
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hawaiian-airlines-flight-date-line_us_5a4a844de4b06d1621ba2314


Drinking alcohol produces a harmful chemical in the body which can lead to permanent genetic damage in the DNA of stem cells, increasing the risk of cancer developing, according to research published on Wednesday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-cancer-alcohol/how-alcohol-damages-stem-cell-dna-and-increases-cancer-risk-idUSKBN1ES1N2


Santa Rosa, California Woman Reunites 'Fire Cats' And Owners After Northern California Wildfires
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2018/01/03/northern-california-wildfires-cats


2017 was the second-hottest year on record according to Nasa data, and was the hottest year without the short-term warming influence of an El Niño event:
https://skepticalscience.com/2017-hottest-year-wo-El-Nino.html


Kids these days are more obsessed with perfection than many previous generations were, and this obsession is associated with increased depression and anxiety, according to a new study published in Psychological Bulletin.
Kids these days are more obsessed with perfection than many previous generations were, and this obsession is associated with increased depression and anxiety, according to a new study published in Psychological Bulletin.

Humidity may prove breaking point for some areas as temperatures rise

It will also be dangerous to plants and animals.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-12/teia-hmp122017.php

Public Release: 22-Dec-2017
Humidity may prove breaking point for some areas as temperatures rise, says study
From US south to China, heat stress could exceed human endurance
The Earth Institute at Columbia University

Climate scientists say that killer heat waves will become increasingly prevalent in many regions as climate warms. However, most projections leave out a major factor that could worsen things: humidity, which can greatly magnify the effects of heat alone. Now, a new global study projects that in coming decades the effects of high humidity in many areas will dramatically increase. At times, they may surpass humans' ability to work or, in some cases, even survive. Health and economies would suffer, especially in regions where people work outside and have little access to air conditioning. Potentially affected regions include large swaths of the already muggy southeastern United States, the Amazon, western and central Africa, southern areas of the Mideast and Arabian peninsula, northern India and eastern China.

"The conditions we're talking about basically never occur now--people in most places have never experienced them," said lead author Ethan Coffel, a graduate student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "But they're projected to occur close to the end of the century." The study will appears this week in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Warming climate is projected to make many now-dry areas dryer, in part by changing precipitation patterns. But by the same token, as global temperatures rise, the atmosphere can hold more water vapor. That means chronically humid areas located along coasts or otherwise hooked into humid-weather patterns may only get more so. And, as many people know, muggy heat is more oppressive than the "dry" kind. That is because humans and other mammals cool their bodies by sweating; sweat evaporates off the skin into the air, taking the excess heat with it. It works nicely in the desert. But when the air is already crowded with moisture--think muggiest days of summer in the city--evaporation off the skin slows down, and eventually becomes impossible. When this cooling process halts, one's core body temperature rises beyond the narrow tolerable range. Absent air conditioning, organs strain and then start to fail. The results are lethargy, sickness and, in the worst conditions, death.

•••••

"It's not just about the heat, or the number of people. It's about how many people are poor, how many are old, who has to go outside to work, who has air conditioning," said study coauthor Alex deSherbinin of Columbia's Center for International Earth Science Information Network. De Sherbinin said that even if the weather does not kill people outright or stop all activity, the necessity of working on farms or in other outdoor pursuits in such conditions can bring chronic kidney problems and other damaging health effects. "Obviously, the tropics will suffer the greatest," he said. Questions of how human infrastructure or natural ecosystems might be affected are almost completely unexplored, he said.

•••••

Links

Iranians chant ‘death to dictator’ in biggest unrest since crushing of protests in 2009
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/30/iran-protests-trump-tweets


Houston mayor makes desperate plea for Hurricane Harvey recovery aid
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/hurricane-harvey/houston-mayor-makes-desperate-plea-hurricane-harvey-recovery-aid-n832011


Forever 21 confirms breach exposed customer credit card info
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/forever-21-confirms-breach-exposed-customer-credit-card-info/


Claire's says initial testing shows cosmetics tested to date "asbestos free"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/claires-says-initial-testing-shows-cosmetics-tested-to-date-are-asbestos-free/

How is Today’s Warming Different from the Past?

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/GlobalWarming/page3.php

Earth has experienced climate change in the past without help from humanity. We know about past climates because of evidence left in tree rings, layers of ice in glaciers, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. For example, bubbles of air in glacial ice trap tiny samples of Earth’s atmosphere, giving scientists a history of greenhouse gases that stretches back more than 800,000 years.



Using this ancient evidence, scientists have built a record of Earth’s past climates, or “paleoclimates.” The paleoclimate record combined with global models shows past ice ages as well as periods even warmer than today. But the paleoclimate record also reveals that the current climatic warming is occurring much more rapidly than past warming events.

As the Earth moved out of ice ages over the past million years, the global temperature rose a total of 4 to 7 degrees Celsius over about 5,000 years. In the past century alone, the temperature has climbed 0.7 degrees Celsius, roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.

Models predict that Earth will warm between 2 and 6 degrees Celsius in the next century. When global warming has happened at various times in the past two million years, it has taken the planet about 5,000 years to warm 5 degrees. The predicted rate of warming for the next century is at least 20 times faster. This rate of change is extremely unusual.

Climate scientist calls Trump's global warming tweet an "often debunked assertion"

Dec. 29, 2017

•••••

"The tweet seemed to imply that the cold weather in the Eastern United States somehow contradicts the notion that the climate is warming -- or warming due to human influence -- which of course is not true. This is a very tired and often debunked assertion," Sobel said.

Sobel explained that winter will not cease to exist and that cold weather can still happen despite global warming.

"If you look at the temperature map for the climate as a whole right now, the entire rest of the planet is warmer than the historical average with the exception of the Eastern United States and Canada, and the last three years -- 2014, 2015 and 2016 -- have been consecutively the warmest years on record," Sobel said.

He added, "So the notion that 'there's cold weather happening somewhere so global warming is not happening' is well understood by people who take the issue seriously to be false."

Sobel said the most important thing people can do to combat climate change is to vote.

"I think that's the number one most important thing, because we can all take individual actions to reduce our carbon footprint, and we all should, but the problem is too big for individual action," he said.

"It's going to be solved by collective action at the government, national and international, level. The United States has the capacity to lead this issue; we were for a little while. Now this administration has made the problem worse rather than helping."

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


https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2017/12/28/a-response-for-people-using-record-cold-u-s-weather-to-refute-climate-change/#2bef53ee5680

A Response For People Using Record Cold U.S. Weather To Refute Climate Change

Marshall Shepherd
Dec. 28, 2017

•••••

The key thing to convey to that skeptical uncle or vociferous social media friend is that "weather is mood, climate is personality." My University of Georgia colleague Dr. John Knox mentioned this a few years ago, and it has been one of my favorite techniques to use while dealing with this pesky climate communication challenge for the public. Weekly or daily weather patterns tell you nothing about longer-term climate change (and that goes for the warm days too). Climate is defined as the statistical properties of the atmosphere: averages, extremes, frequency of occurrence, deviations from normal, and so forth. The clothes that you have on today do not describe what you have in your closet but rather how you dressed for today's weather. In reality, your closest is likely packed with coats, swimsuits, t-shirts, rain boots, and gloves. In other words, what's in your closet is a representation of "climate."

•••••

What we are seeing right now in the United States is just,.........well......wait for it......"winter".....Even as climate warms, we will always have winter (cold weather, snowstorms, blizzards). Winter is related to how the Earth is tilted on its axis as it moves around the Sun. In a previous Forbes piece, I described how the axial tilt of our planet determines our seasons.

Now having said that, our weather is governed by a series of undulations or wave patterns. The "valleys" (troughs) in those waves allow cold, dense air to ooze into the U.S. The "hills" (ridges) in the waves are typically associated with warm conditions. If you search Arctic Amplification on the Internet, there is some evidence that climate change is causing more wavy, high amplitude "valleys" and "hills" in the jet stream pattern. This could be associated with more extreme cold events and more extreme heat/drought events. The science is still emerging on this process, but it should be monitored and not dismissed.

The other thing to point out is that because one part of the world is cold (in that valley), there is likely another part of the world experiencing abnormally warm conditions (in the hill part of the wave pattern). In the temperature map tweeted by long-time weather observer Joe Stepansky, it is clear that on December 28th the United States and parts of Canada are experiencing the anomalously cold weather. If you need a visual of how our three-dimensional atmospheric wave patterns work, consider what happens when you press down on a water bed mattress (for us older folks) or an inflatable bouncy house. One part goes down, another part goes up.

•••••

What we are seeing right now in the United States is just,.........well......wait for it......"winter".....Even as climate warms, we will always have winter (cold weather, snowstorms, blizzards). Winter is related to how the Earth is tilted on its axis as it moves around the Sun. In a previous Forbes piece, I described how the axial tilt of our planet determines our seasons.

Now having said that, our weather is governed by a series of undulations or wave patterns. The "valleys" (troughs) in those waves allow cold, dense air to ooze into the U.S. The "hills" (ridges) in the waves are typically associated with warm conditions. If you search Arctic Amplification on the Internet, there is some evidence that climate change is causing more wavy, high amplitude "valleys" and "hills" in the jet stream pattern. This could be associated with more extreme cold events and more extreme heat/drought events. The science is still emerging on this process, but it should be monitored and not dismissed.

The other thing to point out is that because one part of the world is cold (in that valley), there is likely another part of the world experiencing abnormally warm conditions (in the hill part of the wave pattern). In the temperature map tweeted by long-time weather observer Joe Stepansky, it is clear that on December 28th the United States and parts of Canada are experiencing the anomalously cold weather. If you need a visual of how our three-dimensional atmospheric wave patterns work, consider what happens when you press down on a water bed mattress (for us older folks) or an inflatable bouncy house. One part goes down, another part goes up.

•••••

Oh, and to throw a another counterintuitive thing out there, there are some studies that suggest that a warming climate (because more water vapor is available to a warmer atmosphere) may fuel bigger blizzards or snowstorms. That science is also emerging.

It is a fact that global warming has caused an increase in water vapor in the atmosphere. It would be surprising if if did not lead to heavier rain and snow falls.

•••••

Formerly homeless hairdresser gives free makeovers to homeless girls

By Jennifer Earl CBS News August 3, 2017, 4:58 PM

Two decades ago, Vanessa Howard was a homeless single mother of three with only $1.75 to her name.

During that time, the woman from Tampa, Florida, admits she was — at one point — suicidal. A victim of domestic violence, she had first gotten pregnant as a teen and left her "drug infested" childhood home, not sure where to go next.

"I cried out one day," Howard told CBS News. "I was tired of being homeless, tired of being alone and prayed for help."

The next day, Howard hopped on a city bus with her three little girls and headed to look at an apartment, hoping that this time, the landlord would take a chance on her. When she finally met the building owner, he said something she didn't expect.

"He was like, 'I don't know you, but I feel like you should have this place,'" Howard described. "It was from there that I found hope and restoration. I just wanted to pay it forward."

Howard got her fresh start working in local beauty salons over the years, earning enough money to care for her children.

Four years ago, Howard, who's now 62, did something she never dreamed was possible: she opened her own salon. She named it the Giving Hands Hair Salon because she planned to use the studio to give back to her community.

And that's exactly what she's been doing.

Once a month, Howard comes into the salon on her Sunday off to give free haircuts to the homeless.

"I know the struggle. That's why I give so hard," Howard said. "I'm looking to help restore women. I'm looking to help restore children, because, again, that pain is a part of my purpose."

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Homeless man who gave away his last $20 buys home thanks to fundraiser

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/johnny-bobbitt-buys-home-fundraiser/

Dec. 5, 2017

A homeless man who used his last $20 to fill up the gas tank of a stranded motorist in Philadelphia has bought a home with some of the nearly $400,000 raised for him by the woman he saved.

Johnny Bobbitt Jr. says on his GoFundMe page that he bought a home over the weekend. The fundraiser has raised more than $397,000.

Kate McClure, 27, of Florence Township, New Jersey, ran out of gas on an Interstate 95 exit ramp late one night. Bobbitt walked a few blocks to buy her gas. She didn't have money to repay the Marine veteran, so she created the online fundraiser page as a thank you.

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Bobbitt says he's donating some of his money to a grade school student who is helping another homeless veteran.

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