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Snow? We ice skated both ways. Uphill.
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Published Wednesday, January 31, 2024 @ 5:07 AM EST
Jan 31 2024

As we prepare to welcome February, let's remember a candidate for the worst January of the mid-to-late 20th century.

January, 1994 was a meteorological disaster. The month started off with a blizzard that dumped roughly two feet of snow in the Pittsburgh area, followed by a brief stint of slightly warmer temperatures which, instead of relief, changed the snow into rapidly accreting ice and freezing rain. The hilarity peaked on January 19, when the temperature dipped to -22°F, a record for the city that still stands today.

The frosty precipitation completely coated roads throughout the area, and my family and neighbors were "iced in" for two days. I called the township and told them, tersely, "My daughter is ice skating on the street in front of our house." "Do you want the plow and salt truck?" they asked. "No," I growled, "Send the Zamboni. The ice is getting rough."

My snark was unfair and I later apologized; everyone was caught by surprise. Salt trucks and snow plows were indeed promptly dispatched, but even winterized vehicles have trouble maneuvering- and especially stopping- on sheets of ice. And South Park Township is mostly comprised of steep hills and sharp curves.

As my daughter Sara cruised around on her skates, her brother Doug and their friend Rocco spread the limited amount of salt a neighbor had provided and cleared a small portion of the driveway to the front door. They were teens in high school at the time and had the necessary physical stamina and the enthusiasm of youth to more or less enjoy the situation.

More significantly, our kiddos have, since 2004, crushed their grandparents' and great-grandparents' oft-told tales of how bad the weather was in "the old days". Pittsburgh's highest wind gust (83 mph, 1992), coldest day (-22°F, 1994), hottest day (103°F, 1988), rainiest day (5.95", 2004), and snowiest day (23.6", 1993) have all occurred since 1988. (1950 holds the record for the largest snow storm (27.4"), but the greatest one-day snowfall was the 23.6" in the '93 blizzard.)

So, if you're 36 or older, you have lived through the wildest extremes of Pittsburgh weather. And survived.

Tell Pappap and Meemaw to stick a sock in it.


Categories: KGB Family, South Park Township, PA, Weather


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Clouds
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Published Sunday, November 12, 2023 @ 4:31 PM EST
Nov 12 2023

As if the switch back to standard time wasn't enough...

If you live in Pittsburgh or western Pennsylvania, the cloudy part of the year begins today. From now until around May 15, the median cloud cover is 82%; that is, there are as many days with cloud cover of 82% or greater than days when it's clearer.

Depending on what source you reference, Pittsburgh ranks as the second to fourth cloudiest city in the United States, cloudy being defined as cloud cover of 75% or more. Annually, Pittsbugh has 203 cloudy days, or 56%. We're a victim of geography, stuck between Lake Erie and the Laurel Highlands. And it doesn't mean we don't have days- or at least a few hours- when the skies are clear.

That said, don't forget to take your Vitamin D supplement and use full spectrum light bulbs.


Categories: Clouds, Joni Mitchell, Weather, YouTube


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Fauci has Covid, Yellowstone is flooded, heat wave kills, alligators are mating, it's not really cheese, you know...
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Published Wednesday, June 15, 2022 @ 3:36 PM EDT
Jun 15 2022

Incoming!

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Fauci tests positive for Covid-19. Fauci, 81, has mild symptoms and has been boosted twice

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US report: nearly 400 crashes of automated tech vehicles from last July to May 15. It would be interesting to see how many "human" crashes occurred during the same time period.

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Flooding closes Yellowstone, in a sign of crises to come. Record rainfall and mudslides forced closures just as tourism season ramped up. Virtually none of America’s national parks are untouched by extreme weather and climate change.

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WATCH: Florida woman records giant alligator's mating call in Apopka. Yep, it's Florida.

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Sleeping on your side can literally clean your brain. Personal experience: move the dog first.

Also: Americans take way too much melatonin.

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Four cheese brands to avoid right now, including Kraft Singles, which technically isn't cheese but a "pasteurized prepared cheese product".

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Russia is 'hemorrhaging' millionaires. As Western sanctions make life harder for its elite, Russia is predicted to suffer a net loss of around 15,000 high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) - defined as people with more than $1 million in assets - in 2022, compared to 5,500 in 2019, according to the report. That equates to about 15% of Russia's millionaire population.

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Physicists link two time crystals in seemingly impossible experiment. What could go wrong?

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Extreme heat is bad for everyone's health -- and it's getting worse. Of all the natural disasters, heat is the No. 1 killer, studies show. And as temperatures continue to rise because of the climate crisis, scientists expect it to make even more people ill.

Also: Remember how renewables were blamed for the Texas winter power crisis? Now, wind and solar power are 'bailing out' Texas amid record heat and energy demand.

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Dr. Oz and his sisters are embroiled in a multi-million-dollar inheritance battle in the US and Turkey.

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'Squid Game' reality series coming to Netflix with biggest cash prize in TV history. The streaming home to the hit survival drama announced 'Squid Game: The Challenge,' with 456 players in real-life competition in a series of games for a record-setting $4.56 million purse.

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So long, Internet Explorer. The browser retires today. And good riddance.

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Plants appear to be breaking biochemistry rules by making 'secret decisions'. "We found that plants control their respiration in a way we did not expect, they control how much of the carbon from photosynthesis they keep to build biomass by using a metabolic channel."

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

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On this date in:

  • 1844 - Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
  • 1864 - Arlington National Cemetery is established
  • 1878 - Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
  • 1916 - United States President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.
  • 1969 - "Hee Haw" with Roy Clark & Buck Owens premieres on CBS TV. (Video)
  • 1991 - In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, killing over 800 people.

Today is:

Fly a Kite Day, Global Wind Day, Justice for Janitors Day, Magna Carta Day, National Electricity Day, National Kiss a Wookiee Day, National Lobster Day, National Megalodon Day, National Smile Power Day, Native American Citizenship Day, Nature Photography Day, World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

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Comments, tweets and observations:

Millions of Seniors move to Florida for the climate, and then stay indoors all day with A/C to avoid the climate.
-John Fugelsang

Republicans who accepted NRA money to keep gun laws from being passed now want taxpayer money to keep Republicans from being shot.
-Middle Age Riot

I also didn't win the 2020 presidential election. $250 million, please!
-Stephen Colbert

Today was President Trump's 76th birthday. Pretty impressive. 76, and he can still get an insurrection.
-Seth Meyers


Categories: AI, Anthony Fauci, Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous vehicles, Cheese, Climate change, Covid-19, Heat Wave, Internet Explorer, Mehmet Oz, Melatonin, Microsoft, Physics, Russia, Sleep, Squid Game, Texas, Time crystals, Weather


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AI not sentient, elephants not persons, crayfish invasion, female update, Tom Hanks, sex starter kit, the usual drollery
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Published Tuesday, June 14, 2022 @ 4:00 PM EDT
Jun 14 2022

Things change
Things change.

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No, Google's AI is not sentient. Happy the elephant may be sentient, but a court says she's not a person. As one of the X-Men once remarked, "Stinks to be sentient, sometimes, don't it?"

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Cloned crayfish accidentally created in an aquarium are conquering the world. Let's just hope the marbled crayfish never sets its sights on humanity. If they do, we may never be able to stop them.

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How zoology got female animals all wrong. Female animals are just as promiscuous, competitive, aggressive and dynamic as their male counterparts and play an equal role in driving evolutionary change...

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Tom Hanks explains it all.

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Tom might have problems explaining this: Mother and teenage son create 'first time sex starter kit'.

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Dr. Oz says he'll fight to end illegal immigration. A business owned by his family, in which he is a shareholder, faced the largest fine in ICE history for hiring unauthorized workers.

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Coffee brands with the worst ingredients. As long as they have caffeine, I'm ok.

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A three-hour long solar flare erupted from the sun. Impressive video; fortunately, it only caused isolated radio blackouts.

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Wingnuts helpfully threaten to kill police after arrests of neo-Nazis who planned pride event riot.

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Over 100m Americans urged to stay indoors over extreme heat and humidity. Heat wave expected to settle over states from Gulf coast to Great Lakes and east to Carolinas with 100°F temperatures in some cities.

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No, Marjorie Taylor Greene, transgender people aren't causing the tampon shortage. ...the real issue can be traced back to an increase in the cost of cotton and plastic used to produce tampons. These materials, also used for masks and other medical supplies, have been in particularly high demand since the pandemic. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has added another challenging layer to the problem, as both countries are key exporters of the materials.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

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On this date in:

  • 1775 - American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Armed Forces.
  • 1777 - The Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Act of 1777 adopting the Stars and Stripes as the Flag of the United States.
  • 1822 - Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
  • 1900 - Hawaii became a United States territory.
  • 1949 - Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space.
  • 1951 - UNIVAC I was dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • 1954 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words "under God" into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
  • 1959 - Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.

Today is:

Army's Birthday, Call Your Doctor Day, Family History Day, Flag Day, International Bath Day, National Bourbon Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, Observed annually on June 14th, Own Your Share of America Day, Pause for the Pledge Day, Pop Goes The Weasel Day, World Blood Donor Day, and World Pet Memorial Day

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Comments, tweets and observations:

If you don't think Donald Trump will end up in prison, remember, nobody thought he would end up in the White House either.
-Middle Age Riot

If Trump was arrested, and led away in cuffs, and it was televised by the US Gov't., live on Pay Per View, it's possible we could eliminate the National Debt.
-Duty to Warn


Categories: AI, Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Climate change, Coffee, Heat Wave, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mehmet Oz, Neo Nazis, Rudy Giuliani, Sentience, Sex, Solar flares, Tampons, Tom Hanks, Weather


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Guns, heat waves, oral biome, duck sauce, Great Salt Lake, inflation, recession, iPhones
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Published Wednesday, June 08, 2022 @ 2:30 PM EDT
Jun 08 2022

Cease fire

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Matthew McConaughey's full White House press briefing statement on gun violence. (Video)

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A timeline of failed attempts to address U.S. gun violence.

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FTC to probe CVS Caremark, Express Scipts and other pharmacy benefit managers. These businesses, the biggest of which are run by companies that also operate health insurers, have been criticized by doctors and patients over their formularies and other concerns about drug access.

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A 'dangerous and deadly heat wave' is on the way, the weather service warns. More than 25 million people are under heat alerts, and more than 50 daily high-temperature records could be broken through the weekend - including in Death Valley, California, one of the hottest places on earth.

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Dentist warns against one habit that leaves 'the baddest, toughest' germs in your mouth. The biggest problem is that people either neglect their mouth or go to the other extreme by disinfecting and sterilizing it to such a degree that they disrupt the balance of the oral microbiome.

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Queens man accused of killing Chinese food delivery worker is obsessed with duck sauce, other condiments, say police. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz previously called Hirsch's demand for duck sauce an "obsessive point of contention." On Tuesday, a police source told the New York Post that his whole refrigerator was discovered to be filled with duck sauce, calling him a "hoarder."

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As the Great Salt Lake dries up, Utah faces 'an environmental nuclear bomb'. Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, windstorms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah's population.

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What is a recession? A really good explanation. (Video) Also, what is inflation? in six minutes (Video).

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iPhones will be required to use USB-C charging by 2024 under EU policy. Provisional EU agreement applies to additional electronics, laptops to follow. Let's hope the policy spreads to the US as well.

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Late night watch: President Biden will visit "Jimmy Kimmel Live" tonight.

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Miscellany:

Birthdays:

On this date in:

Today is:

Best Friends Day, Betty Picnic Day, Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day, Name Your Poison Day, National Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, Thomas Paine Day, Upsy Daisy Day, World Brain Tumor Day, and World Oceans Day.

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Comments and observations:

Credit card debt soared by $17.8 billion in April, the second highest amount ever. The highest was March, when it soared by a staggering $25.6 billion. Consumers are completely tapped out. They're using their credit cards to buy food and pay for other essentials.
-Peter Schiff


Categories: Climate change, Dental Care, Drugs, Economics, EU, FTC, Great Salt Lake, Gun laws, Guns, Heat Wave, Inflation, iPhones, Matthew McConaughey, Recession, Weather


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SgrA*, George Carlin, VT escape, clean air danger, bread and "real" bread
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Published Thursday, May 12, 2022 @ 9:01 PM EDT
May 12 2022

SagA*

Groundbreaking Discovery: First ever image of the Milky Way’s Supermassive black hole. The image is a long-anticipated look at the massive object that sits at the very centre of our galaxy. Here's an explanatory video.

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Remembering George Carlin

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This is the safest place to live in the US as the climate changes (TL;DR: Vermont)

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Young Americans say abortion access matters for future moves. The majority of young people surveyed in a poll responded that abortion access is at least "somewhat important" in determining where they'll live in the future.

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You just can't win. Study finds cleaner air leads to more Atlantic hurricanes. A 50% decrease in pollution particles and droplets in Europe and the U.S. is linked to a 33% increase in Atlantic storm formation in the past couple decades, while the opposite is happening in the Pacific with more pollution and fewer typhoons, according to the study published in Wednesday's Science Advances.

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US overdose deaths hit record 107,000 last year, CDC says. The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one U.S. overdose death every five minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set the year before.

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The confirmation of a third Democrat to the Federal Trade Commission could pose trouble for Amazon and Elon Musk.

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Russia is resorting to putting computer chips from dishwashers and refrigerators in tanks due to US sanctions, official says.

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Things you should know: Why modern sandwich bread is different from "real" bread.

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Tweets, observations, and diversions:

Starbucks raised prices after reporting a 31% increase in profits. Same with Tyson, who posted $1 billion in profits last quarter — a 48% increase from the first quarter of 2021. Get the picture?
-Robert Reich

When Richard Nixon Wanted to be a Rapper. Yes, that Richard Nixon.

So the same people killing us by denying the fact that masks & vaccines work are ALSO the experts on when human life begins?
-Jon Cooper

KGB is taking the day off tomorrow. The report will return on Monday.


Categories: Abortion, amazon.com, Black Holes, Climate change, Elon Musk, FTC, George Carlin, Opioids, Sagittarius A*, Ukraine, Weather


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Zero tolerance, zero brains; Bob Dylan; solar storms; spermageddon; canine-spread coronavirus
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Published Monday, May 24, 2021 @ 12:00 AM EDT
May 24 2021

One of the problems associated with being thrown into Facebook jail is ignorance of the alleged offense.

The announcement states that your post has violated Facebook's "Community Standards," a dense, 27-page litany of offenses that will get you kicked off the platform.

I found the section which I believe addresses my post:

"We care deeply about the safety of the people who use our apps. We regularly consult with experts in suicide and self-injury to help inform our policies and enforcement, and work with organizations around the world to provide assistance to people in distress.

"While we do not allow people to intentionally or unintentionally celebrate or promote suicide or self-injury, we do allow people to discuss these topics because we want Facebook to be a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues, and seek support from one another."

"We define self-injury as the intentional and direct injuring of the body, including self-mutilation and eating disorders. We remove any content that encourages suicide or self-injury, including fictional content such as memes or illustrations and any self-injury content which is graphic, regardless of context."

Here's the offending cartoon:

I maintain this isn't a cartoon about suicide- it's a cartoon addressing the power of social media to influence otherwise sane people to do insane things. If anything, it's an anti-suicide cartoon.

I've appealed prior suspensions and won, because it was obvious the artificially intelligent bot or stressed human outside contractor didn't grasp the concepts of satire, parody, or irony and made a bad call. Most of the time Facebook admitted it was in error and unhid the post. But I don't think it's going to work in this instance, because self-injury is one of those categories of which Facebook seems to have a zero tolerance policy. There is no way to contact any human at Facebook to offer a defense. And a small potatoes page administrator with a mere 10,134 followers really can't create enough media outrage to get Facebook executives involved.

I suspect Facebook adopted this policy to aggregate a number it can use in its "we're doing our best, but we can't catch everything" defense. They can point to their mountain of context-free suspensions and say, "Look, we suspended n accounts in the last month for violating our policy against self-injury."

Supplementary viewing/reading:

25+ best memes about jumping off a cliff

Little evidence supports the claimed effectiveness of zero-tolerance policies.

"The whole principle is wrong (censorship); it's like demanding that grown men live on skim milk because the baby can't eat steak."
-Robert A. Heinlein

"The written word will soon disappear and we'll no longer be able to read good prose like we used to could. This prospect does not gentle my thoughts or tranquil me toward the future."
-James Thurber

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"The first way to answer the questions in the song ('Blowin' in the Wind') is by asking them. But lots of people first have to find the wind."
-Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman. He's 80 today.)

Actor Gary Burghoff is 78 today. The video above is the 1984 pilot episode of a M*A*S*H spinoff that wasn't picked up.

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The first text message: On this day in 1844, Samuel Morse sent the message "What hath God wrought" (a biblical quotation, Numbers 23:23) from a committee room in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate a commercial telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

On this day in 1940, Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

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NOT REAL NEWS: a look at what didn't happen last week.

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Pentagon's UFO footage- and Obama's curiosity- ratchet up expectations for a big reveal. When Congress passed the $2.3 trillion omnibus appropriations bill in December, it included a requirement that the Pentagon and a number of intelligence agencies prepare a report laying out what they know about UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), which is the new military-speak for UFOs. The report is expected to be delivered as early as June 1, and at least part of it will be made available to the public.

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Good news for a Monday morning: "...greater coffee consumption is associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality."

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Liz Cheney's GOP primary challenger admits to impregnating 14-year-old when he was 18. Liz Cheney's GOP primary challenger admits to impregnating 14-year-old when he was 18. The Facebook video he released, called "Senator Bouchard takes on the fake news media," claimed "I was young" and "you've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story," he said, neglecting several glaring differences like the Shakespearean characters were fictional and neither was running for Congress in the so-called "family values" party.

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Can the news be fixed? The fix is already in. Oh, you mean like repaired.

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The Great Amazon Purge... "About three weeks ago, several major Amazon brands were suddenly kicked out. Most people were unaware of the names of more than 12 disappearing Chinese companies, such as Mpow and Aukey. However, these two sell a number of electronic devices, such as phone chargers and external batteries for smartphones. If you click "Buy" on Amazon's first phone charger or wireless headphones, it could be from one of the sellers currently suspended."

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Alabama will now allow yoga in its public schools (but students can't say 'namaste'). But on the other hand, Alabama becomes latest state to legalize medical marijuana.

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Life as we know it:

Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth.

A massive heat dome is about to make the Southeast sweat. "Temperatures starting on Monday will run between 10-15 degrees above normal, and border on record maximum temperatures, both for daily highs and lows."

Spermageddon: Could men be infertile by 2045? One word: parthenogenesis.

New coronavirus discovered- and dogs are spreading it. It could be the eighth coronavirus known to cause illnesses in humans.


Categories: Alabama, amazon.com, Anthony Bouchard, Bob Dylan, Coffee, Covert Comic, Dogs, Drugs, Facebook, Fact check, Gary Burghoff, Helicopters, Igor Sikorsky, James Thurber, January 6, Liz Cheney, M*A*S*H, News Media, Republicans, Robert A. Heinlein, Romeo and Juliet, Samuel Morse, Self-injury, Spermageddon, Suicide, Telegraph, The Sun, Weather, William Shakespeare


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Cockroaches and Cher, reality check, Charles Grodin
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Published Thursday, May 20, 2021 @ 12:00 AM EDT
May 20 2021

"I've come back so many times. Someone once told me that after World War III, the only things that will still be around are cockroaches and Cher."
-Cher (Cher is 75 today. Born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946)

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On this date in 2015, David Letterman, after 33 years on late night, hosts the "Late Show with David Letterman" for the last time.

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Reality check:

Covid-19 vaccines do not contain magnetic microchips.

Trump fans claim their ballots were fed to chickens. And then the chickens were incinerated to destroy the evidence.

A state senator in Texas falsely claimed at a hearing that animal tests were "stopped" because the "animals were dying" and that "they didn’t do the human testing."

QAnon revives America's "Satanic Panic."

Arizona's election audit is worse than you think.

This IRS letter isn't a scam, and you should keep it.

A fungus is pushing cicada sex into hyperdrive and leaving them dismembered.

New York's probe into Trump Organization is now a criminal inquiry.

House approves January 6 commission over GOP objections. Lawmakers passed the bill in a 252-175 vote, with 35 Republicans joining all Democrats in support. Of course, unless ten GOP senators go along, it's an exercise in futility.

An amazing photo of a west Texas thunderstorm.

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Pittsburgh's Charles Grodin (April 21, 1935 – May 18, 2021) was valedictorian of his class at Peabody High School and was elected class president all four years. An accomplished actor, I remember him mainly from his many appearances as a talk show guest with an attitude:

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The World Health Organization says overworking is a major killer worldwide. So I'm outta here.


Categories: Arizona, Charles Grodin, Cher, Conspiracy Theorists, Covid-19, Donald Trump, IRS, January 6, Johnny Carson, QAnon, The Big Lie, The Tonight Show, Weather, World Health Organization


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Facebook jail, Grant's Tomb, Für Elise, why McDonalds ice cream machines are always broken
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Published Tuesday, April 27, 2021 @ 12:01 AM EDT
Apr 27 2021

I'm scheduled to be released from Facebook "jail" today, a week after I was suspended from the social networking platform for a satirical cartoon I posted six years ago that supposedly violated "Community Standards." My only guess is that it popped up in the daily "Memories" feed and got tagged there. Bear in mind, the post was perfectly okay in 2015, when I shared it from another account.

Ah, Community Standards... a vague set of rules established to protect Facebook from criticism that it harbors Bad People Thinking Bad Thoughts. But the standards are subjectively interpreted, and randomly and arbitrarily enforced by buggy AI software that doesn't understand the concepts of satire, sarcasm, and parody.

I was suspended two years ago for this picture, which Facebook's artificial intelligence bots tagged as "hate speech":

It's an obvious, self-deprecating male joke. I was offending men? Women? The dog?

Facebook has an appeal process, and for several times each day in the past week I stated my case in the form supplied, hit the send button, and received this:

I think it's hard coded into the page.

What's particularly frustrating is the whole banning business is totally opaque. You're told you can't post for a specified period of time, and then are directed to review the Community Standards to make certain you don't do it again. But in many cases, Facebook doesn't tell you what it was you were doing that triggered the censorbot: violating some advertising rule, promoting hate speech, etc. It's like being pinched by the feds, having them hand you the U.S. Code, and telling you to read it to discover why you were arrested.

And of course, there's no way to actually contact a human being at Facebook. If you go to the page to report a problem and send them the details, you just get a pop-up acknowledging submission.

The guy in the video sums up the whole thing. Understandably NSFW language, but it's no worse than some of the stuff that appears on Facebook that, for some reason, doesn't get flagged for violating community standards:

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Thought of the day: "I rise only to say that I do not intend to say anything. I thank you for your hearty welcomes and good cheers." (Known as Grant's perfect speech.)
-Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) (More Ulysses S. Grant quotes)
Speaking of dead presidents... on this day in 1994, Richard M. Nixon was buried on the grounds of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California.

Contemporary Thought of the Day: Just think, in 30 years this country will be run by people who were home schooled by alcoholics.

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Among other things, today is Babe Ruth Day, Marine Mammal Rescue Day, Matanzas Mule Day, Morse Code Day, National Devil Dog Day, National Prime Rib Day, National Tell a Story Day, International Design Day, and World Tapir Day.

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On this date in 1810, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59, Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as Für Elise. One of his most popular compositions, and one of the most famous piano pieces of all time, it was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl ) 40 years after his death.

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On this day in 1897, Grant's Tomb was dedicated. Officially the General Grant National Memorial, President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia Grant are entombed there. Thus, "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" is a pedantic, trick question. No one is buried there.

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Sheena Easton (b. Sheena Shirley Orr, 27 April 1959) is 62 today. She had 15 US Top 40 singles, seven US top tens and one US No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1981 and 1991.

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The current junior United States Senator from New York, Cory Booker, (b. Cory Anthony Booker, April 27, 1969) is 52 today. Notable quote: "Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children." (More Cory Booker quotes)

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On this date in 1981, Xerox introduced the first commercially available computer mouse.

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On this date in 2011, the 2011 Super Outbreak devastated parts of the Southeastern United States, especially the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. 205 tornadoes touched down on April 27 alone, killing more than 300 and injuring hundreds more.

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Florida man indicted for selling over $1 million worth of toxic COVID-19 'miracle cure' that was bleach.

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Why the world should worry about India. The world's largest vaccine producer is struggling to overcome its latest COVID-19 surge—and that's everyone's problem.

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When you see a headline like Biden isn't banning meat, USDA chief says, you just know it's just another conservative delusion.

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Now this is great investigative journalism, no sarcasm intended: the REAL reason McDonalds' ice cream machines are always broken.

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This looks interesting, but is it really necessary? Of course, the original 1961 film was a yet another take on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which itself was based on the 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet and a 1556 work by William Painter.

And speaking of movies, the television rating for the Oscars® plunged 58% from 2020, with less than ten million viewers tuning in.


Categories: Computers, Cory Booker, Covid-19, Facebook, Florida, Ice Cream, Ludwig Nohl, Ludwig van Beethoven, McDonald's, Oscars, Republicans, Richard Nixon, Romeo and Juliet, Sheena Easton, Steven Spielberg, Ulysses S. Grant, Weather, West Side Story, Xerox


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Trump, dementia, asteroids, Twitter, laboring from home under duress.
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Published Wednesday, May 27, 2020 @ 12:00 AM EDT
May 27 2020

Today is Wednesday, May 27, the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 218 days remain until the end of the year.

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Among other things, today is Cellophane Tape Day, National Grape Popsicle Day, National Gray Day, National Senior Health & Fitness Day®, Nothing to Fear Day, Old-Time Player Piano Day, Sunscreen Protection Day, and World Product Day.

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On this day:

in 1837, American folk hero Wild Bill Hickock (d. August 2, 1876) was born.
in 1907, Silent Spring author Rachel Carson (d. April 14, 1964) was born. Quotes by Rachel Carson.
in 1911, Vincent Price (d. October 25, 1993) was born.
in 1911, Hubert H. Humphrey (d. January 13, 1978) was born. Quotes by Hubert H. Humphrey
in 1922, Christopher Lee (d. June 7, 2015) was born.
in 1923, Henry Kissinger was born. Quotes by Henry Kissinger
in 1933, Walt Disney's cartoon 3 Little Pigs was released. It won the Academy Award Best Animated film in 1934;
in 1934, Harlan Ellison (d. June 28, 2018) was born. Quotes by Harlan Ellison
in 1935, Lee Meriwether was born.
in 1936, Louis Gossett Jr. was born.
in 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic.
in 1941, the German battleship Bismarck was sunk in the North Atlantic.
in 1962, the Centralia mine fire was ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine. It could burn for another 250 years.
in 1995, actor Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition in Culpeper, Virginia. Quotes by Christopher Reeve

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PSP Frontotemporal Dementia

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Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise... Twenty U.S. states reported an increase in new cases of COVID-19 for the week ended May 24, up from 13 states in the prior week, as the death toll from the novel coronavirus approaches 100,000, according to a Reuters analysis.

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The coronavirus is deadliest where Democrats live. Democrats are far more likely to live in counties where the virus has ravaged the community, while Republicans are more likely to live in counties that have been relatively unscathed by the illness, though they are paying an economic price. Counties won by President Trump in 2016 have reported just 27 percent of the virus infections and 21 percent of the deaths — even though 45 percent of Americans live in these communities, a New York Times analysis has found.

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Remembering Sara Little Turnbull, whose bra cup design became the N95 mask.

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New hormone that stimulates sexual functions in fish could lead to novel infertility treatments in humans.

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Asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck earth at “deadliest possible” angle. Related: Meteor that blasted millions of trees in Siberia only 'grazed' Earth, new research says.

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Twitter refuses to remove Trump's false tweets, but in some cases has begun fact-checking them.

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America's unemployment numbers are stabilizing. That's not a good thing.

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Kate Mulgrew might 'move to Ireland' if Trump wins second term.

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McConnell: Talking about fifth coronavirus bill 'in the next month or so'.

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NOAA's outlook for US summer weather—and hurricane season... wet, dry, and windy.

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'Something isn't right': U.S. probes soaring beef prices. One hundred years ago, U.S. antitrust prosecutors broke down monopolies in meatpacking. But can they do it again?

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Thoughts of the day:

In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends.
-Charles Caleb Coulton

I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.
-Peter De Vries

If you cast your bread upon the water and you have faith, you'll get back cash. If you don't have faith, you'll get soggy bread.
-Don King

Population density is a term that has two meanings.
-William W. Webb

Does history repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce? No, that's too grand, too considered a process. History just burps, and we taste again that raw-onion sandwich it swallowed centuries ago.
-Julian Barnes

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You are not working from home. You are laboring in confinement, under duress.

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Things are really rough out there.
Please consider donating to Feeding America
.


Categories: Astronomy, Bismarck, Centralia Mine Fire, Christopher Lee, Christopher Reeve, Climate change, Covid-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, Frontotemporal Dementia, Golden Gate Bridge, Harlan Ellison, Henry Kissinger, Hubert H. Humphrey, Kate Mulgrew, Lee Meriwether, Louis Gossett Jr., Mitch McConnell, NOAA, Rachel Carson, Republicans, Three Little Pigs, Twitter, Unemployment, Vincent Price, Weather, Wild Bill Hickock


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Vicious cycle
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Published Wednesday, February 05, 2014 @ 10:57 AM EST
Feb 05 2014

An inch of ice accreted over the previously fallen four inches of snow. This was at 7 am; now it's up to 37°F and everything's melting. It will re-freeze later today, with more snow tonight and a low of 15°F. The stores have been out of calcium chloride for over a week now, and supplies of rock salt are also scarce. The trick is to try to get the concrete clear and dry before the next storm arrives.

But it's better than the droughts, wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes they experience in the south. Like I told a friend, in two months it'll be spring, but you'll still be in Texas.


Categories: Weather


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Oh, AccuWeather...
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Published Tuesday, July 23, 2013 @ 10:34 AM EDT
Jul 23 2013

How would we survive without you?


Categories: Weather, WTF?


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Rain. Again.
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Published Tuesday, July 23, 2013 @ 7:46 AM EDT
Jul 23 2013

Don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain.
-Leo Durocher

Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
-Billie Holiday

For after all, the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If I were running the world, I would have it rain only between 2 and 5 a.m. Anyone who was out then ought to get wet.
-William Lyon Phelps

Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Irrigation of the land with seawater desalinated by fusion power is ancient. It's called rain.
-Michael McClary

Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.
-John Updike

Save a boyfriend for a rainy day-and another, in case it doesn't rain.
-Mae West

Some people walk in the rain. Others just get wet.
-Roger Miller

Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again.
-Jimmy Piersall

The best time to listen to a politician is when he's on a stump on a street corner in the rain late at night when he's exhausted. Then he doesn't lie.
-Theodore H. White

The drowning man is not troubled by rain.
-Unattributed

The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.
-W. Somerset Maugham

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
-Dolly Parton

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation.
-Hunter S. Thompson

Those who profess to favour freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
-Frederick Douglass

Trouble will rain on those who are already wet.
-Unattributed

We will never be an advanced civilization as long as rain showers can delay the launching of a space rocket.
-George Carlin


Categories: Quotes on a topic, Weather


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Shazam
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Published Thursday, July 18, 2013 @ 7:32 AM EDT
Jul 18 2013

Apparently, Captain Marvel has arrived in Pittsburgh. (Twitter photo by @timbetler. Taken from USX, July 16.)


Categories: Photo of the day, Twitter, Weather


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It could be worse
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Published Wednesday, July 17, 2013 @ 7:58 AM EDT
Jul 17 2013


Tampa Bay, Florida waterspout, by Joey Mole
(From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day)

We get an occasional heatwave, a tornado or two, some flash flooding and snow. According to NASA, the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida is arguably the most active area in the world for waterspouts, with hundreds forming each year. Some people speculate that waterspouts are responsible for some of the losses recorded in the Bermuda Triangle.

Most disappearances in our area can be attributed to PennDOT.


Categories: NASA, Weather


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Flooded out
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Published Wednesday, July 10, 2013 @ 10:27 AM EDT
Jul 10 2013

Widespread flash flooding in the Pittsburgh area this morning due to heavy rains.

We live in the Library Heights area of South Park Township, so we have no flood problems. But it's pretty much impossible to go anywhere. My wife couldn't make it to work this morning because all the main roads have major intersection flooding.

The video above shows Library station, the end of the line of the Port Authority of Allegheny County's light rail transit system. The tracks are under about four feet of water, and commuters retrieving their cars this evening are going to be unpleasantly surprised.

They're predicting more heavy storms this afternoon, so Pittsburgh readers ought to consider hunkering down for a while. If you live anywhere near a road with "Run" in its name (Saw Mill Run, Thompson Run, etc.) you can be certain you're going to be affected.


Categories: KGB Family, Weather


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Exchange of the day
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Published Saturday, April 13, 2013 @ 5:55 PM EDT
Apr 13 2013

"Hey, we might be able to see the Northern Lights tonight."

"What time?"

"They're saying 8, but it may be as late as midnight."

"Cool. What direction do you look?"

"Uh... Northern Lights? I'm guessing north."

(Some sources are saying that due to a large coronal mass ejection on the Sun this past Thursday, that areas as far south as Pennsylvania may be able to observe the Aurora Borealis this evening.)


Categories: Observations, Weather


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Speaking of weather...
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Published Thursday, April 04, 2013 @ 6:58 AM EDT
Apr 04 2013

Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.
-Robert A. Heinlein

Diplomats are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop.
-Charles de Gaulle

Do not videotape your child in the bathtub. Do not name your child after a Scandinavian deity or any aspect of the weather.
-Daniel Menaker

Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
-Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard

Each of us makes his own weather, determines the color of the skies in the emotional universe which he inhabits.
-Fulton J. Sheen

Friendship-A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul.
-Ambrose Bierce

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather become frozen: even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.
-Leonardo da Vinci

Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?
-Kelvin Throop, III

No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather.
-Michael Pritchard

Running is a four-season sport. There is no such thing as bad weather, only timid souls.
-Unattributed

The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters.
-Jean-Paul Kauffmann

The weather is here, wish you were beautiful.
-(postcard, unattributed

There is no such thing as bad weather. Only bad clothes.
-John Foster

Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers.
-Unattributed

When I get sick of what men do, I have only to walk a few steps in another direction to see what spiders do. Or what the weather does. This sustains me very well indeed.
-E.B. White

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
-Bob Dylan


Categories: Quotes of the day, Weather


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A case of the Mondays
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Published Monday, March 25, 2013 @ 6:24 AM EDT
Mar 25 2013

No matter how bad your Monday morning is, odds are you didn't have to wade through belly-deep snow in order to pee. There's about five inches of snow out there now and it's still coming down. Late March snows really aren't that unusual, and we get an average of 1.5" in April. And on May 9, 1966, we got 3.1 inches. So quit complaining.


Categories: Animals, Dogs, Weather


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Spring has officially arrived
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Published Saturday, March 16, 2013 @ 6:32 PM EDT
Mar 16 2013

The Library, PA Tastee Creme is open.


Categories: Weather


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Why I love Jim Cantore...
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Published Sunday, February 10, 2013 @ 7:25 AM EST
Feb 10 2013

Jim Cantore renders Al Roker speechless.


Categories: Al Roker, Jim Cantore, The Weather Channel, Video, Weather, YouTube


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What can I say?
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Published Saturday, January 26, 2013 @ 7:55 AM EST
Jan 26 2013

I like dogs in snow pictures. Here Riley and Sassy try to figure out why I'm pointing that flashy clicky thing at them instead of rolling in the three and a half inches we got from yesterday's clipper system.


Categories: Dogs, Weather


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Weather Sheltie
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Published Saturday, November 24, 2012 @ 7:17 AM EST
Nov 24 2012

"Aye, Dad- there be a wee bit o' snoo..."


Categories: Dogs, Photo of the day, Weather


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Multiple choice
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Published Thursday, November 01, 2012 @ 7:06 AM EDT
Nov 01 2012

Actual set of random questions presented on the mobile version of the government's disaster assistance site.

In the case of New Jersey, the correct answer is "all of the above."


Categories: Photo of the day, Weather


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Photo of the day
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Published Wednesday, October 31, 2012 @ 6:04 AM EDT
Oct 31 2012

"You can come out now..."


Categories: Photo of the day, Weather


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