45% Say Random Group From Phone Book Better Than Current Congress - Rasmussen Reports™

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 45% of likely U.S. voters now think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress. That’s up 12 points from October 2008, just before the last congressional elections. Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree, and another 19% are not sure.

Freezing Away in Global Warming-ville

Oh, wait. That’s right. There’s nothing but flawed computer models, conjecture, and hysteria to support the hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming. All the real scientific evidence points overwhelmingly to natural and cyclic climate change going back thousands of years.

Manatees Crowd Into Canal For Warmth - News Story - WFTV Orlando

At one point Friday morning there were about 100 manatees crowded into the little canal, seeking warmth...If the cold snap doesn't break and the creatures start to develop more severe signs of cold stress, the state could take unprecedented action and set up triage sites. They can not throw food to the manatees, because that would be interfering with their natural desire to seek out food.

There are a few manatees in the canal that are already showing some signs of cold stress, their skin turning a lighter gray.

Biologists say cold stress can lag about a week or more behind the cold temperatures so even if it warms up, they are worried about whether the animals are going to survive.

Just in Time for Winter : CJR

...useful stories explaining the current cold-weather patterns are “missing in action.” [during heat waves, does the mainstream media provide lots of useful stories explaining warm-weather patterns?]

Heavy snow hampers traffic, blocks roads in Spain : Travel General

Madrid - Heavy snowfall hampered traffic in northern Spain on Friday, causing chaos in cities such as Santiago de Compostela, traffic officials said. The border pass into France was reopened at La Jonquera, but around 100 road links remained affected, with more than 10 of them closed around the country. Some schools suspended classes in the north.

Snowy Ireland runs out of salt, but not broken bones

Ireland has been gripped by its longest cold spell since 1963.
...
Lakes in the normally temperate west of Ireland have frozen for the first time in living memory and teenagers have been driving all-terrain vehicles on the ice on Lake Mourne in County Donegal despite warnings from the police of the dangers.

Prolonged cold spells in this normally rain-soaked island on the Atlantic are so rare that people still talk about the “Big Snow” of 1947, which lasted seven weeks and caused the ground to freeze so hard that the dead could not be buried.

“This cold spell is going on and on and could very well break records,” said Ray Bates, adjunct professor of meteorology at University College Dublin. Ireland rarely has snowfall, he explained, “because during the summer the Atlantic stores heat which it gives off in winter and the prevailing south west winds pick up that heat and brings it to us in the winter.”