Greetings!

In view of the near record setting snowstorm that is not at all related to global warming (Al, put down the cheesecake), some items of interest:

Did you ever wonder just how a weather forecast is made?

Those models are going to have to change, I think. We really don’t know for sure how melting arctic ice will effect the weather. We aren’t entirely sure just when we’ll get an arctic basically free of ice, but it could be as early as 2016. This summer set a record for ice melt.

We aren’t the only ones getting hit. Tornado, in Italy, on NOV 28!

And Down Under is roasting. To the point of having to add extra contours to maps.

Otoh, we may have banned CFC’s in time. Ozone hole seems to be on the mend.

And a case study in Toronto points the way to a 70% reduction in carbon.

Mar Rover drill success.  We’ve hit bedrock. Finding that water existed is kinda old news, gimme something alive! And I’m still waiting for my pony!

Here on earth, we sampled the Kermadec Trench, which goes down some 32,000ft.  Among other things, a cosmopolitan rattail! Ya gotta love that name. This is the same area and the same team that gave us the supergiant amphipod

A study of the earth’s core via seismic waves may show an extinction level event forming. *sigh* Yet another method of being wiped out we have to worry about.

Some of the weird ways we survive and study Antarctica.  We’ve found life half a mile deep under the ice!  Still no word on if the Lake Vostok cores are good.

Bees took a beating again this year. Yale researchers think it’s at least partly due to antibiotic resistance. I remind you of this study and suggest you buy your honey at the farmers market.

I missed this when it came out, but found it while wandering through the above. Honey Bee repair wax a weapon against cancer? Apian Duct tape has many uses, it would seem.

The Large Hadron collider will shut down for maintenance and upgrades soon. Just as well, the scientists have tremendous amounts of data nd will need time to sift through it. Despite the general acceptance that the LHC has detected the Higgs, the CERN team was always more cautious. They’re saying we should know for sure by mid year.

Don’t forget to enter your kids in the 2013 Creation Science Fair, held in the Twin Cities. They claim there were 60 entries last year. Here’s their thoughts on the Mars rovers.

If you believe in evolution, your multiple-Great grandmother eats bugs and looked like a shrew.

Flying Squid. No, I’m NOT making that up! And they’re FAST!

Boxturtle (So, what’d all think of Walking Dead Last night?)