Current Events #9

It’s Cold Y’all

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/29/us/georgia-alabama-stranded-buses-schoolchildren/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Atlanta is shut down -- businesses, roads, government in general -- and while that's generated furor among residents, the angst is exacerbated by the overnight uncertainty involving many of the city's cubs.Across the state, and even extending into Alabama, there were reports of children spending the night in schools, their parents or school buses unable to navigate treacherous conditions that Georgia Department of Public Safety Commissioner Col. Mark McDonough said caused almost 1,000 accidents in the Georgia capital alone.

That Was a Bad Idea

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/28/grass-greener-brain-research-lateral-frontal-pole

A new brain region that appears to help humans identify whether they have made bad decisions has been discovered by researchers.

The size and shape of a large Brussels sprout, the ball of neural tissue seems to be crucial for the kind of flexible thought that allows us to consider switching to a more promising course of action.

While other brain parts keep track of how well, or not, our decisions are working for us, the new structure is more outward-looking, and mulls over what we might have done instead.

Rampage

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/27/health/pennsylvania-drug-deaths/index.html?hpt=he_c2

The deaths Williams has recorded are among nearly two dozen in western Pennsylvania linked to a heroin-fentanyl mix, state Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Monday. The "extremely dangerous and potentially lethal" combination has killed 22 people in six counties, Kane said in a written statement.In the past week, he saw 15 -- men and women, of various ethnicities, ranging in age from 22 to 53. All of them appear to have been heroin users who instead received a mix of heroin and fentanyl, a powerful narcotic used to treat cancer patients' pain, Williams told CNN.

Silence Says so Much

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/28/showbiz/pete-seeger-death/index.html?hpt=us_t5

Pete Seeger, the man considered to be one of the pioneers of contemporary folk music who inspired legions of activist singer-songwriters, died Monday.He was 94.Seeger's best known songs include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)" and "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)."But his influence extended far beyond individual hits.

Eye for an Eye?

http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2014/01/government_to_see_death_penalt.html#incart_river

BOSTON — Federal prosecutors on Thursday announced they will seek the death penalty against 20-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing, instantly raising the stakes in what could be one of the most wrenching trials the city has ever seen.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to press for Tsarnaev's execution was widely expected. The twin blasts killed three people and wounded more than 260 others, and 17 of the 30 federal charges against him — including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill — carry the possibility of the death penalty.

Too Soon

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/02/02/philip-seymour-hoffman-dead/5162669/

Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead Sunday in his Greenwich Village apartment with what law enforcement officials said was a syringe in his arm. He was 46.

The two officials told The Associated Press that glassine envelopes containing what was believed to be heroin were also found with Hoffman. Those items are being tested.

Tragic Irony?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/27/marlboro-ad-eric-lawson-dies-cigarettes-smoking

Eric Lawson, who portrayed the rugged Marlboro man in cigarette ads during the late 1970s, has died. He was 72.

Lawson died on 10 January at his home in San Luis Obispo of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife, Susan Lawson, said on Sunday.

Lawson was an actor with bit parts on such TV shows as Baretta and The Streets of San Francisco when he was hired to appear in print Marlboro ads from 1978 to 1981

Don’t Drive Angry

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/02/us-usa-pennsylvania-groundhog-idUSBREA1103020140202

Punxsutawney Phil, a famed U.S. groundhog with an even more famous shadow, emerged from his burrow on Sunday and predicted six more weeks of winter, much to the chagrin of those hoping for an early spring.

The rotund rodent exited his subterranean residence at Gobblers Knob in the western Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney around 7:30 a.m. on Groundhog Day.

Waiting for a Phone Call

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/us/firefighters-dying-man/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Marie Mills held her 77-year-old father, who had collapsed outside in a Washington street. She screamed for help.A passerby rushed across the street to bang on the door of a fire station, knowing that firefighters are trained to provide emergency medical help.But they wouldn't leave the station.

It’s Cold Y’all

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/us/winter-weather/index.html?hpt=us_c1

Atlanta (CNN) -- Two days after snow began to fall -- and a day after many Georgians, including hundreds of schoolchildren, finally made it home -- the state's governor apologized Thursday for what many saw as an insufficient and ineffective response.Gov. Nathan Deal told reporters he was "not satisfied" with how his state dealt with the 2.6 inches of snow plus the sheets of ice that it turned into, leading to massive gridlock throughout metro Atlanta. In addition to students stranded at school, many drivers camped out in their cars or abandoned them by the hundreds along thoroughfares big and small.

$51 Billion Babooshka

http://news.discovery.com/human/5-reasons-the-sochi-winter-olympics-could-be-a-disaster-140205.htm

Years of planning and billions of dollars went into the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Selected as the venue in 2007, Russia is host to the Olympics for the first time since the break-up of the Soviet Union. The last Olympics held within its borders was the 1980 Winter Olympics in Moscow.

Despite all the time, money and effort, Russia isn't looking all too ready for the start of competition in just a matter of days. In fact, the most expensive Olympics in history may even turn out to be a disaster.

At Least it is Better than Curling

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-seattle-trounces-denver-43-8/

EAST RUTHERFORD, N,J. -- The Seattle Seahawks' mantra all season was to make each day a championship day.

They made Super Bowl Sunday the best day of all with one of the greatest performances in an NFL title game, sparked by a defense that ranks among the best ever.

The Seahawks won their first Super Bowl crown in overpowering fashion, punishing Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos, 43-8. That masterful defense, the NFL's stingiest, never let the five-time Most Valuable Player get going, disarming the highest-scoring offense in league history.

Will a Movie Be Made About This?

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/zombie-bees-found-northeast/story?id=22290433

Mutant "zombie bees" that act like the ghoulish creatures of horror films have surfaced in the Northeast after first appearing on the West Coast, a bee expert told ABC News on Wednesday.

An amateur beekeeper in Burlington, Vt., last summer found honeybees infested with parasites that cause the insects to act erratically and eventually kill them. It was the first spotting of zombie bees east of South Dakota, according to John Hafernik, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University whose team in October verified the infestation.

WMD…OMG not ROFL

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/26/justice/pennsylvania-teen-bomb-arrest/

Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested a 19-year-old Russian man Friday and charged him with possession of a weapon of mass destruction, Altoona police said in a written statement.Police officers were investigating a reported marijuana-growing operation when they discovered a homemade bomb and bomb-making materials in a suitcase, the news release said.Vladislav Miftakhov, a Russian citizen, was arrested and charged with possessing a weapon of mass destruction, risking a catastrophe and drug-related offenses. He was arraigned Friday and bail was set at $500,000, Blair County corrections officer James McMahon said Sunday.According to a criminal complaint, police found one pound of atomized magnesium and one pound of Chinese potassium perchlorate along with a package labeled potassium nitrate powder. They also found fuses and several containers of compressed air.

Another Cry for Help

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2014-01-29/news/bs-md-ho-columbia-mall-shooting-details-20140129_1_mall-shooter-howard-county-police-new-details

Columbia mall shooter Darion Marcus Aguilar wrote in a journal about killing people, claimed he was "ready to die" and alluded to an unspecified plan that was "set," police revealed Wednesday.

Investigators say the 19-year-old wrote sporadic entries over the past year, indicating he thought he needed mental health help and apologizing to his family for his looming actions. He expressed a "general hatred toward others," police said.

The details offered the most complete account to date of Aguilar's mental state in the period leading up to Saturday's shooting outside the Zumiez skate shop. His shotgun blasts killed Brianna Benlolo, 21, and Tyler Johnson, 25, before he took his own life. Authorities say they know of no motive for the shooting.