Longmont slammed with more than 15 inches of snow
Spring storm closes highways, schools, businesses
A swift, powerful winter storm clobbered Longmont with more than 15 inches of snow on Wednesday, shutting down schools, businesses and government offices, and causing power outages, traffic collisions and downed trees.
Times-Call weather consultant Don Lewis said 15.4 inches of snow fell in Longmont on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service is predicting mostly sunny skies Thursday with temperatures nearing the 50s, but rain and snow could return to Longmont on Friday afternoon heading into the weekend. …
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, it’s a beautiful, sunny morning. A little cold. After a while I’m planning on calling the parks department to ask if the Saint Vrain Greenway has been plowed.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY: MARCH 24TH- QUARTERING
This Day In History: March 24, 1765
On March 24, 1765 the British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which specified the obligation of the American colonists to provide British troops with shelter and provisions. The Act ordered the colonists to provide barracks for the soldiers stationed nearby, and if they did not have ample space in the barracks, housing must be found for them in local inns, ale houses, or livery stables.
If there were soldiers still needing room and board after public establishments were full, the colonists were obliged to open their barns, outbuildings or empty houses for shelter. They were also expected to provide necessities including bedding, candles, firewood, beer and cooking utensils. …
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have gone full caveman
The Republican hopefuls moved on from penis size to trade barbs over their wives’ honor in the latest colorful incident. This is the locker-room election.
For all of the unexpected turns 2016 has held for Republicans, one thing is certain: this year will be remembered as the election season that launched a thousand women’s studies dissertations.
If “small hands” and “Little Marco” didn’t convince you that the Republican presidential primary is actually a controlled study in anxious masculinity, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have now gone full caveman: trading barbs over their wives’ honor. (Sure, it’s a Twitter fight – not quite as testosterone-laden as an old-fashioned duel – but hey, it’s a new world.)
After an anti-Trump group ran Facebook ads in Utah ahead of Tuesday’s primary that featured a nearly-nude shot of Melania Trump, the blustery candidate accused Cruz’s campaign of being behind the picture. “Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a GQ shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Trump tweeted. Cruz responded by tweeting to Trump that the picture did not come from him and that “if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought. #classless” …
The only political entity less popular than Congress and the GOP? Donald J. Trump.
Few people in this country have a trickier job than Reince Priebus. The chairman of the Republican National Committee is the guy who was selected to ensure that the party maintains power and stability, to double-check every brick and seal every crack in the GOP firmament.
But now the party’s base has gotten hold of a wrecking ball, and he finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having to simultaneously keep the establishment from being destroyed while also praising how well his voters are operating that heavy machinery.
The question that looms over this primary season, dominated by Donald Trump — who is only a few short months away from having balloons drift down onto his fabulous hair on a stage in Cleveland — is how the party will survive. Trump is one of those parasitic wasps that burrows inside a beetle to lay its eggs, and Priebus is like, nice egg-laying, man. What will this Trump-led party look like? What will it stand for? How will the beetle-shell move its limbs? …
10 Forgotten Republics From World History
We think of many historic rulers as autocrats, with rule based on heredity and the sword. Before the Age of Enlightenment, the main exceptions were the democratic cities of ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, and the Italian maritime republics.
Thus, the idea of popular representation of the citizenry is often seen as a quintessentially Western cultural product that is nonexistent elsewhere. This belief may be incorrect because sources of proto-democratic thought and behavior can be found in unusual places throughout history.
10. Lanfang Republic
In the 18th century, the West Kalimantan region of Borneo was divided into three sultanates that were interested in exploiting the local deposits of gold, tin, and other valuable minerals.
The coastal areas were inhabited by Javanese and Bugis immigrants while the native Dayak people inhabited the interior. At Singkawang, Sultan Panembahan brought in 20 Chinese workers from Brunei after hearing of their industrious work ethic.
In response, Sultan Omar, his rival, offered leases to the Chinese to settle the area. By 1770, lease deals offered by the sultans had increased the population of Hakka Chinese on the island to 20,000. They formed cooperative business ventures known as kongsi for mutual protection and support. …
“God Bless New York [a City I Hate]” -Ted Cruz
In New York City, you find subcultures for every sexual persuasion, bars dedicated to every football team, and food from every nation on earth. Hell, you can even find a few hundred people who support Ted Cruz.
Cruz, the official candidate of Brylcreem, has in the past denigrated “New York values,” which is a phrase meaning “anal sex and then getting an abortion, even though you don’t need to.” Another New York value, though, is a laissez-faire approach to criticism. People here don’t hold grudges. Particularly if they are a certain sort of Upper East Side residents seeking a viable candidate to cut their taxes. …
Here’s the scariest thing about “The Simpsons” episode that predicted President Trump
In “Bart to the Future,” President Lisa Simpson faces many problems even she can’t tackle
“Bart to the Future,” in season 11 of the iconic Fox animated series “The Simpsons,” is a truly abysmal episode of television. And yet, like many abysmal things, it is experiencing a renaissance, of sorts, because of a throwaway line spoken by Lisa, midway through the episode: “As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.” Oh, yes: Lisa Simpson is the president of the United States, and she is speaking to her senior staff; and yes, the world is still somewhat intact following the hypothetical presidency of Donald Trump.
The fact that the episode seems to have predicted a Donald Trump presidency has caught the attention of many publications, and last week, writer Dan Greaney spoke to both the Hollywood Reporter and the Washington Post about how that came to be.
Here’s a bit from the Post’s Comic Riffs column:
… the real-estate mogul was just the right comedic fit at the time, and notes that they needed a celebrity name that would sound slyly absurdist.
Besides, Greaney says, “He seems like a ‘Simpsons’-esque figure — he fits right in there, in an over-the-top way.
“But now that he’s running for president, I see that in a much darker way,” the Emmy-winning writer-producer continues. “He seemed kind of lovable in the old days, in a blowhard way.”
…
10 Facts You Should Know About Self-Mummification
The word “mummy” conjures up many images. We may think of the embalmed pharaohs of ancient Egypt wrapped in cloth and prepared for a cozy spot in the afterlife. A picture of Tutankhamun’s beautiful death mask may pop into our minds. A bit younger are the eerie Andean child mummies that look like they could spring back to life at any second.
Maybe the word “mummy” makes us think of the human remains resting in the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily. They are fascinating and creepy at the same time. Mummies pop up all over the globe and through all time periods. But no matter how diverse they are, they have one thing in common: The process of mummification always occurs after death.
Or does it? There’s at least one weird exception to the rule. A certain sect of Buddhist monks in Japan decided to turn their bodies into mummies while they were still alive. These monks practiced self-mummification to become sokushinbutsu (“Buddhas in the flesh”).
10. Why Would Anyone Do This?
Self-mummification sounds like a bad idea. Who would want to do such a thing?
The first person who aspired to become a living mummy was a man named Kukai, later known as Kobo Daishi. Kukai was a Buddhist priest who lived more than 1,000 years ago in Japan. During his lifetime, he founded the Shingon (“True Words”), a new sect of Buddhism.
Kukai and his followers were convinced that spiritual power and enlightenment could be achieved through self-denial and an ascetic lifestyle. A Shingon monk could easily be found sitting for hours under an ice-cold waterfall, ignoring his body’s needs while meditating.
Inspired by Tantric practices from China, Kukai decided to take his ascetic lifestyle to the extreme. His aim was to leave behind the restrictions of the physical world and become a sokushinbutsu. To achieve this, Kukai took certain measures that turned his body into a mummy while he was still alive. …
This has to be one of the creepiest Listverse articles i’ve read.
Twitter taught Microsoft’s AI chatbot to be a racist asshole in less than a day
It took less than 24 hours for Twitter to corrupt an innocent AI chatbot. Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled Tay — a Twitter bot that the company described as an experiment in “conversational understanding.” The more you chat with Tay, said Microsoft, the smarter it gets, learning to engage people through “casual and playful conversation.”
Unfortunately, the conversations didn’t stay playful for long. Pretty soon after Tay launched, people starting tweeting the bot with all sorts of misogynistic, racist, and Donald Trumpist remarks. And Tay — being essentially a robot parrot with an Internet connection — started repeating these sentiments back to users, proving correct that old programming adage: flaming garbage pile in, flaming garbage pile out. …
Exercise may slow down the brain’s aging by 10 years
Physical activity has countless health benefits, including helping to keep the mind sharp. Now new research reveals just how much of an impact exercise can have on brain health as we age.
The study, published today in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that older adults who reported either light or no exercise at all experienced a cognitive decline equal to 10 more years of aging when compared to people who were moderate to intense exercisers.
“The number of people over the age of 65 in the United States is on the rise, meaning the public health burden of thinking and memory problems will likely grow,” study author Dr. Clinton B. Wright, of the University of Miami, said in a statement. “Our study showed that for older people, getting regular exercise may be protective, helping them keep their cognitive abilities longer.” …
WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTER MOUSE?
Doug Engelbart is widely credited as the inventor of the computer mouse. Of course, as with most inventions, nothing happened in a vacuum and before the device that gave birth to the modern mouse was thought up, there were several exceptionally similar devices around. For the full story of the invention of the computer mouse, we’ll begin by backtracking slightly to a British engineer whose invention was subsequently classified as a military secret and hidden from the public.
That engineer was Professor Ralph Benjamin who, while working for the Royal Navy Scientific Service, invented a device that functioned in an almost identical fashion to a trackball mouse way back in the mid 1940s. According to a 2013 interview with Dr. Benjamin, he was tasked by the Royal Navy with helping develop something called the Comprehensive Display System, an early computer system that could calculate the theoretical trajectory of monitored aircraft based on the inputs of a user. …
Against Empathy
Paul Bloom, psychologist and Yale professor, argues that empathy is a bad thing—that it makes the world worse. While we’ve been taught that putting yourself in another’s shoes cultivates compassion, it actually blinds you to the long-term consequences of your actions. In this animated interview from The Atlantic, we hear Bloom’s case for why the world needs to ditch empathy.
So we’re not inherently selfish – but selflessness requires careful thought
A new study shows how altruism wells up from the most primitive parts of the brain. It counts for little, though, if our rational powers aren’t engaged too.
Recently, a team of researchers the University of California Los Angeles published data showing what goes on in the brain when people act altruistically. These researchers rated study participants as more or less “prosocial” based on how much money they gave away in a computer game.
In each of two dozen trials, participants were offered $10, shown a head shot and pseudonym for another player, and then allowed five seconds to decide “how much $ would you like to offer?” – knowing they’d get to keep the rest. It was real money, and the recipients were real people.
The researchers, Leonardo Christov-Moore and colleagues, assumed that the amount given away indicated each participant’s level of “self-other resonance” or “prosocial decision-making” – in common parlance, altruism or empathy.
They wanted to find out exactly where altruism comes from in the part of the brain that processes feelings and motivations, and how it might be tuned or constrained by brain regions underlying cognitive self-control. They launched their study with the prediction that altruism is hard-wired in the emotional brain, and the sophisticated brain regions responsible for self-control merely tune and curtail that impulse. …
5 Famous Charity Songs That Were Insanely Harmful
As much as pop culture loves music videos featuring 200 celebrities singing one line each, we’re surprisingly lax about actually making sure that charity songs and concerts really do some good. We’ve told you before about how Live Aid ended up inadvertently helping Ethiopia’s awful government, and now we’re here to ruin even more of your faith in humanity. It’s … it’s just kind of what we do here.
#5. Wyclef Jean Gathers $16 Million For Haiti … And Himself
Back in January 2010, all the major networks and cable channels in America hosted the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, a star-studded event meant to help Haiti recover from one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history. Many famous actors, musicians, and performers attended, and also Kid Rock was there.
They broke donation records when they threatened to let Bono keep rapping if you didn’t send money.
A hefty chunk of the funds gathered by the event went to Yele Haiti, a charity organization created by former Fugee Wyclef Jean. Between that and other benefit concerts and public appearances, Wyclef ended up with $16 million that he claimed would go to the people of Haiti. Well, Wyclef and his family are from Haiti, so technically, he was telling the truth. …
North Carolina Overturns LGBT-Discrimination Bans
After Charlotte passed a city ordinance barring discrimination and creating transgender accommodation for bathroom use, Republicans in the state legislature swung into action.
The North Carolina General Assembly called lawmakers back to Raleigh on Wednesday for a special session. The reason wasn’t a pressing budget crisis, a natural disaster, or court-mandated redistricting. (That happened last month.)
Instead, legislators returned to the state house to overrule a local ordinance in Charlotte banning discrimination against LGBT people. A bill written for that purpose passed Wednesday evening and was signed by Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican. In the House, every Republican and 11 Democrats backed the bill. In the Senate, Democrats walked out when a vote was called, resulting in a 32-0 passage by Republicans. The law not only overturns Charlotte’s ban: It also prevents any local governments from passing their own non-discrimination ordinances, mandates that students in the state’s schools use bathrooms corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate, and prevents cities from enacting minimum wages higher than the state’s. …
Choosing Love or the Mormon Church
Young, LGBT Latter-day Saints can’t live the ideal life of marriage and family described in their religion. But deciding to leave isn’t straightforward.
Addison Jenkins, pictured near an LDS Temple in Salt Lake City, is a student at BYU who is openly gay.
To be a member of the LGBT community and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has always meant walking a tightrope between two worlds. The Church has stated unequivocally that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, and that homosexuality is contrary to God’s plan for his children. Mormon theology emphasizes the eternal nature of human relationships, particularly traditional marriage and family.
But Church leaders have also emphasized that simply being attracted to someone of the same sex is not a sin, and that God loves all of his children. Those wishing to maintain full membership in the Church could commit to a life of celibacy, and many LGBT Mormons who choose to pursue same-sex relationships still attend church, some even with their partners. The Church even supported anti-discrimination legislation in Utah that included protections for LGBT citizens and released a statement that members would not be punished for supporting same-sex marriage and other gay rights on social media or in other public forums. For LGBT Mormons who wished to be part of the Church, a careful balance between their identity and their faith seemed possible.
That changed in November when the Church introduced a new policy in the Handbook of Instruction, a guide for lay clergy: Members in same-sex marriages would be considered apostates, an excommunicable offense. Children living in same-sex households would be excluded from religious rites, such as baby blessings and baptism, until they turn 18. Once they reach that age, they have the option to disavow same-sex relationships, move out of their parents’ house, and ask to join the Church. …
10 Crazy Conspiracy Theories About Extraterrestrial Beings
The idea of other intelligent beings has long been fascinating to us. Ancient myths have us interacting with gods and all kinds of strange, mythical creatures such as centaurs. The stars have also played an important role in cultures around the world. Over time, ancient myths became nothing more than legends, while technology and scientific discovery started to destroy our belief in strange nonhumans.
This made us look further to the stars for our hopes, and all-new theories have been born since. Many of today’s theories about intelligent, nonhuman life are not only bizarre but try to trace everything back to ancient days. Modern conspiracy theorists believe that everything is connected and that the events of Roswell were not even close to the beginning.
10. The Mass UFO Sightings Over Los Angeles Decades Ago
Before Roswell, a strange incident happened that might have gotten way more attention in history books if not for the fact that it happened in the middle of World War II. In 1942, several years before the infamous Roswell incident, the city of Los Angeles was in an extremely tense mood. The Japanese had only recently bombed Pearl Harbor, so anything strange in the sky was immediately assumed to be a Japanese air raid.
On the night of February 24, 1942, residents of Los Angeles saw many unidentified aircraft in the sky. Everyone started panicking, thinking that the aircraft were Japanese bombers. However, despite the city launching an all-out, coordinated attack against these strange objects in the sky, there’s no physical evidence that they managed to hit anything, nor is there any evidence that the UFOs attempted to fire back or interact in any way. …
Scientists solve mystery of USS Conestoga that sank in 1921
Shipwreck off San Francisco is identified as last US navy vessel to be lost without a trace in peacetime
A US navy tug missing since 1921 has been discovered sunk off San Francisco, solving a longstanding maritime mystery.
The wreck of the USS Conestoga was found near one of the Farallon Islands about 30 miles west of San Francisco, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the navy said in a statement.
“After nearly a century of ambiguity and a profound sense of loss, the Conestoga’s disappearance no longer is a mystery,” the statement said.
The ocean-going tug left San Francisco on 25 March, 1921, bound for American Samoa via Hawaii, with 56 officers and sailors aboard. It was never heard from again, and its disappearance triggered an air and sea search and gripped newspapers across the United States. …
How New Yorker cartoons could teach computers to be funny
The weekly magazine, started in 1925, is using crowdsourcing algorithms for the first time to find the funniest cartoon captions. Scientists see big potential in these jokes.
On a bright Wednesday morning on the glass-encased 38th floor of One World Trade Center, about a dozen cartoonists waited anxiously outside Bob Mankoff’s office for a chance to pitch The New Yorker’s cartoon editor. Amid the pressure, at least one person was breathing easy: Colin Stokes, Mankoff’s assistant.
Not too long ago, Stokes would spend eight hours a week trawling through about 5,000 submissions for the magazine’s caption contest, which asks readers to pen a clever one-liner for a cartoon. The 18-year-old contest is wildly popular and winning it is prestigious enough to put on a resume. (OK, not really.) But Stokes was in danger of going, as Mankoff put it, “humor blind.” That’s something like snow blindness, but much rarer.
Luckily, a computer program has swooped in to save Stokes and his sense of humor. With the help of computer scientists from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, The New Yorker for the first time is using crowdsourcing algorithms to uncover the best captions. The magazine quietly started using the algorithms a few months ago, testing them out on past caption contest winners and finalists. On Wednesday, The New Yorker revealed the tool publicly and is now inviting all of us to vote for our favorite captions. …
WHY CASHEWS ARE NOT SOLD TO CONSUMERS IN THEIR SHELLS AND WHY PISTACHIOS USED TO BE DYED RED
Why Cashews are Not Sold to Consumers in Their Shells
Cashews are a member of the same family as poison ivy, Anacardiaceae. Like poison ivy and many other members of the family, part of the cashew plant contains an oily chemical called urushiol, which is a strong irritant for most people and can even be fatal for some if ingested.
In cashews, the urushiol is found not only in the leaves, but also in a layer of oil between the shell and the cashew seed. Needless to say, shelling cashews is something that needs to be done very carefully and not by consumers. …
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CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.
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