13 Examples Of People Being Awesome In The Middle Of The Atlanta Traffic Jam

Business Insider

Christina Sterbenz   
Jan. 29, 2014, 3:50 PM
Amid all the snow-related nonsense going down in Atlanta, people are showing immense compassion on a local Facebook group, SnowedOutAtlanta.
People are using the group, created by Georgia resident Michelle Sollicito, to post their locations, asking for help for themselves or their loved ones. The most tragic stories involve diabetics, the elderly, and families with young children, especially infants. Some people can't even get in touch with their families.
Aside from calls for help, offers of assistance are also being publicized. People with large vehicles are selflessly posting their contact information to retrieve those stranded or bring supplies. Members are also opening up their homes for shelter.
The posts are getting shares, tons of likes, and comments offering prayers and hope. The group — at 41,000 members and counting — is getting almost too big to help.
Here are just a few of the amazing posts:
1. Eric Morissey: "Hey people on Interstate 20 westbound at McDaniel Street Exit 55 -- it's lunch time! I am packing up now with 16 lunches, and ~3 gallons of water, and some cups and plates too. Who's hungry? Send me the deets!"

Facebook/SnowedOutAtlanta

2. Katrina R: "On our way with crackers, bananas, water and snack cakes. If you're on 285 near 5 or 7, let us know. We're coming to you and it's free."

Facebook/SnowedOutAtlanta

3. Debbie Wilson Pusterino: "Just left some supplies on the median on 285 East near exit 29."

Facebook/SnowedOutAtlanta

4. "The hot chocolate guys have been identified! Dozens of you sent us photos of these guys serving hot cocoa to stranded motorists on I-75. We now know the men behind the kindness are Zach Haedt and Sam Tarquina. LIKE this! It's a great way to say thanks to all the people doing nice things in the #GeorgiaSnow," 11alive News wrote.

Facebook/11AliveNews

5. "GOOD SAMARITAN: Matthew Miller is on I-75 near Turner Field handing out food to stranded motorists. He packed PB&Js, cereal and hot cocoa for anyone who needs it."“I saw on Facebook people had been out here for 18 hours…so I just thought I’d try to help out any way I could,” Miller told WSB-TV.

Facebook/WSB-TV

6. Graham Lutz: "Where am I needed? Can make it just about anywhere?"

Facebook/SnowedOutAtlanta

7. Jeanne Harn: "We just walked 2 miles to I75, to pass out snacks & things in Kennesaw.. I75 south is still backed up. There were college students walking the interstate as well, handing out fruit & things. So happy to see everyone helping. We just walked 2 miles back home, will warm up, & then head out the 2 miles to I575, to help those folks.. This is my son Darwin, my daughter Faith, and husband Randall..."

Facebook/SnowedOutAtlanta

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Spring Outlook: Six More Weeks of Winter to Grip Half of US

Accuweather

By Jillian MacMath, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

January 30, 2014; 3:04 AM

Though Phil has a few more days to prognosticate the next six weeks, the AccuWeather.com long-range forecasting team already predicts that the nation will be split in half: cold and snow will linger in the Northern states, while spring will get an earlier start in the southern half.

Where Will Cold Linger?

Wintry weather is forecast to hold longest across the the Great Lakes, Northeast and mid-Atlantic.
Cold air masses and a few snowstorms will continue to impact the regions as late as March before the winter season comes to an end.
A steady stream of warmth may not arrive for cities from Detroit to Boston and New York City until mid- to late spring.
"For the next six weeks in the Northeast, we're going to be dealing with some pretty good cold coming down out of northern Canada," AccuWeather.com Lead Long-Range Forecaster Paul Pastelok said.
"I still think there's going to be a few systems of significance before the winter season is over with."
Similarly, snow and shots of cold air will persist across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest.

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Major Storm Eases Drought in California

Accuweather

By Anthony Sagliani, Meteorologist

January 30, 2014; 5:38 AM

 

As severe to extreme drought continues to grip much of California, the first significant storm since early December is bearing down upon the state.
A persistent ridge of high pressure that has been stationed over the western United States for the last several months has crumbled during the past couple of days.
This has allowed a storm track that had been sending storms into far northern Canada to dive southward, right into the Pacific Northwest and California.

While the widespread sunshine and warmth of the last few weeks may be over for now, the change in weather is marked by very beneficial, drought-easing rain and snow, especially in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Elevations above 8,000 feet can expect snowfall amounts to exceed at least 2 feet through Friday evening. Winds will gust over 90 mph across the higher ridges.
Lower elevations, such as Lake Tahoe, can expect snowfall amounts to range from 6-12 inches through Friday.

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Heat or eat? Bitter winter forces unique cuts

NBC News

Business

Bill Briggs NBC News

 

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Jonathan Adams / for NBC News

Susie Quick of Midway, Ky., has resorted to wearing more layers while at home to help lessen her electric bill which has tripled. When the temperature drops, Quick climbs into bed with her dog Roscoe to battle against the rising cost of heating her home.

Their teeth are chattering and their budgets are bursting like frozen pipes.
In nippy Dixie, some are dialing down the thermostats, then dressing in layers — inside their homes — and inviting pets into their beds to share the warmth, cursing their power bills as "hate mail."
In the arctic northeast, some are canceling vacations, shelving clothes shopping, and even — horror of horrors — buying cheap wine, while fully admitting these are "first world problems." But from north to south, scores of Americans are finding innovative ways to slash spending as they shovel more bucks into utility costs amid the nasty cross winds of soaring home-heating prices and blistering cold snaps.
"Dinners out? What IS that?!" asks Susie Quick, a resident of Midway, Ky., who is purposely injecting a chill into her home and her spending due to a monthly power bill that's leaped from $90 to $300. Several southern states recently have shivered through the lowest temperatures in years.
"I walk around my house like a lumberjack in layers of silk underwear, plaid flannel shirt, down vest, scarf, hat, sweater leggings and furry faux UGGs. I only wish I could grow a beard for added warmth," said Quick, who lives on a horse and cow farm, and who works as a medical editor at the University of Kentucky. Her house is electrically heated.
On recent nights, she's been allowing her 45-pound coonhound and two cats to sleep with her — "if there was room for my horse, I'd bring him in, too." As for food, she's a "non-elective vegan" but said she can't afford "pricey" fake meat like tofu hot dogs and tempeh burgers. Instead, she dines on rice and beans, and greens. Going to a hair salon is too expensive so she's become "my own amateur hair stylist and colorist and I'm really afraid it shows."
"I have three rooms shut off with towels down at the door bottoms to prevent drafts. My furniture is also lumberjack-chic and covered in blankets and throws. I refuse to succumb to a Snuggie, though a Thuggie has appeal. So House Beautiful this is not," said Quick, who refers to her heating bills as "hate mail."

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Earth's magnetic field, so important to life on the planet, has weakened by 15 per cent over the last 200 years. And this, scientists claim, could be a sign that the Earth’s poles are about to flip.

Forget global warming, worry about the MAGNETOSPHERE: Earth's magnetic field is collapsing and it could affect the climate and wipe out power grids

• Earth's magnetic field has weakened by 15 per cent over the last 200 years

• Could be a sign that the planet's north and south poles are about to flip

• If this happens, solar winds could punch holes into the Earth's ozone layer

• This could damage power grids, affect weather and increase cancer rates

• Evidence of flip happening in the past has been uncovered in pottery

• As the magnetic shield weakens, the spectacle of an aurora would be visible every night all over the Earth

By Ellie Zolfagharifard
PUBLISHED: 07:38 EST, 27 January 2014 | UPDATED: 11:54 EST, 27 January 2014
Deep within the Earth, a fierce molten core is generating a magnetic field capable of defending our planet against devastating solar winds.
The protective field extends thousands of miles into space and its magnetism affects everything from global communication to animal migration and weather patterns.
But this magnetic field, so important to life on Earth, has weakened by 15 per cent over the last 200 years. And this, scientists claim, could be a sign that the Earth’s poles are about to flip.

The Earth's protective field extends thousands of miles into space and its magnetism affects everything from global communication to animal migration and weather patterns

Experts believe we're currently overdue a flip, but they're unsure when this could occur.
If a switch happens, we would be exposed to solar winds capable of punching holes into the ozone layer.
The impact could be devastating for mankind, knocking out power grids, radically changing Earth’s climate and driving up rates of cancer.
‘This is serious business’, Richard Holme, Professor of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences at Liverpool University told MailOnline. ‘Imagine for a moment your electrical power supply was knocked out for a few months – very little works without electricity these days.’

 The Earth's climate would change drastically. In fact, a recent Danish study believes global warming is directly related to the magnetic field rather than CO2 emissions.

The study claimed that the planet is experiencing a natural period of low cloud cover due to fewer cosmic rays entering the atmosphere.

Radiation at ground level would also increase, with some estimates suggesting overall exposure to cosmic radiation would double causing more deaths from cancer.
Researchers predict that in the event of a flip, every year a hundred thousand people would die from the increased levels of space radiation.
'Radiation could be 3-5 times greater than that from the man-made ozone holes. Furthermore, the ozone holes would be larger and longer-lived,' said Dr Colin Forsyth from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL.

The magnetosphere is a large area around the Earth produced by the planet's magnetic field. It presence means that charged particles of the solar wind are unable to cross the magnetic field lines and are deflected around the Earth

The magnetosphere is a large area around the Earth produced by the planet’s magnetic field. It presence means that charged particles of the solar wind are unable to cross the magnetic field lines and are deflected around the Earth.
Space agencies are now taking the threat seriously. In November, three spacecraft were launched as part of the SWARM mission to uncover how the Earth’s magnetic field is changing.
The mission plans to provide better maps of our planet's magnetic field and help scientists understand the impact of space weather on satellite communication and GPS.
‘Whilst we have a basic understanding of the interior of the Earth, there is much we still don’t know,’ said Dr Forsyth.
‘We do not fully understand how the Earth’s magnetic field is generated, why it is variable and the timescales of these variations.’
The mission will provide a current map of Earth’s magnetic field. But historic evidence of its decline has already been found in a surprising source – ancient pottery.
Scientists have discovered that ancient pots can act as a magnetic time capsule. This is because they contain an iron-based mineral called magnetite. When pots form, the magnetite minerals align with the Earth’s magnetic field, just like compass needles.

WHAT IS GEOMAGNETIC REVERSAL?

The Earth’s magnetic field is in a permanent state of change. Magnetic north drifts around and every few hundred thousand years the polarity flips so a compass would point south instead of north. The strength of the magnetic field also constantly changes and currently it is showing signs of significant weakening.
The Earth magnetic field is mainly generated in the very hot molten core of the planet. The magnetic field is basically a dipole (it has a North and a South Pole). Magnetic reversal or flip is the process by which the North Pole is transformed into the South and vice versa, typically following a considerable reduction in the strength of the magnetic field. However, weakening of the magnetic field does not always result in a reversal.
During a reversal, scientists expect to see more complicated field pattern at the Earth's surface, with perhaps more than one North and South Pole at any given time. The overall strength of the field, anywhere on the Earth, may be no more than a tenth of its strength now.

The Earth's magnetic field is generated in the very hot molten core of the planet. Scientists believe Mars used to have a magnetic field similar to that on Earth which protected its atmosphere

By examining pottery from prehistory to modern times, scientists have discovered just how dramatically the field has changed in the last few centuries.
They’ve found that Earth’s magnetic field is in a permanent state of flux. Magnetic north drifts and every few hundred thousand years the polarity flips so a compass would point south instead of north.
If the magnetic field continues to decline, over billions of years, Earth could end up like Mars - a once oceanic world that has become a dry, barren planet incapable of supporting life.

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• Earth's magnetic field is collapsing and it could affect the climate and wipe out power grids

Cold Man Winter strikes water pipes; insurers deluged

NBC News

Kelly Harry and Steve James NBC News Contributors

8 hours ago

Jim Mone / AP

Plumber Nate Petersen prepares a pump to shoot water into the incoming city water line, left pipe, that has been frozen at a south Minneapolis home. Roto Rooter was been inundated with calls since the cold snap and regular work has been put on hold because of burst pipes and even frozen sewer lines, according to plumbing manager Paul Teale.

A home in Brooklyn, N.Y., got colder and colder even as the owners turned up the heat, while a house in Paducah, Ky., had an inch of water in four rooms. They were both victims of water pipes that cracked in the deep freeze that has much of the nation in its icy grip.
America's largest insurance company, State Farm, says it has had so many claims for frozen pipes — 28,000 in the Jan. 4-9 period of extreme cold — that it declared the situation a "catastrophe," allowing it to bring in more adjusters to handle the overload. It said the payout for such claims can be as high as $15,000.
The American Insurance Association says 22 percent of all claims on home owner's policies — 1 in 5 — are for cold weather damage, and its member companies pay out around $1.4 billion per year.
"We anticipate a large spike in frozen pipe claims," said Peter Foley, the AIA's vice president for claims. "In Washington, D.C., some of my colleagues have already had them in their own homes."
Foley told NBC News that the problem with broken pipes is that very often you don't notice them until the weather warms up and the ice thaws.
"The thing is, we are getting extreme cold temperatures in parts of the country where houses are not built to withstand it," said Foley, whose own house in New Hampshire has water pipes under the floorboards, rather than running along exposed exterior walls.
Ilene Sacco, a homeowner in Brooklyn, can count herself lucky, even though she had to call out the plumber after she and her husband noticed is was getting a little bit cold, even when they turned up the radiators.
“Two pipes froze in the garage and one in the baseboard down the wall,” she said. “The one in the garage actually cracked ... they had to cut out a piece and replace it."
What saved her from more expensive damage was the fact that it stayed so cold outside. "There had been a chunk of ice in there. If it had melted, the water would have been all over the place.”

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‘Zombie Bees’ Found in Vermont

 

 

The Epoch Times

By Associated Press | January 28, 2014

A hive of honey bees is on display at the Vermont Beekeeping Supply booth at the 82nd annual Vermont Farm Show at the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Jct., Vt., on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Andy Duback)

ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt.— Vermont beekeepers face mite infestations, extreme temperature swings and the possibility of colony collapse. Last fall, a new threat emerged: zombie bees.
Beekeeper Anthony Cantrell of Burlington discovered zombie bees in his hive in October, the first time they’d been found in the eastern United States.
John Hafernik, a professor from San Francisco State University, discovered the first zombie bees in 2008. A fly called Apocephalus borealis attaches itself to the bee and injects its eggs, which grow inside the bee, Hafernik said. Scientists believe it causes neurological damage resulting in erratic, jerky movement and night activity, “like a zombie,” Hafernik said by phone Tuesday.
These aren’t undead bees doomed to roam for eternity. They often die only a few hours after showing symptoms, Hafernik said.
Hafernik and his team of colleagues and students have been tracking the zombie bee spread across the United States. California, Washington, Oregon and South Dakota all have confirmed zombie bees while this is the first time the bee has been found this far east, said Hafernik. The fly previously attached to bumblebees as hosts, not honeybees, according to Hafernik.
“Right now, we don’t know if it’s an isolated thing,” Stephen Parise, Vermont agricultural production specialist, said Tuesday at the state’s annual farm show.


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