Do you take advantage of layaway offers in order to nab goodies for the holidays while they are on sale? While I've personally never used layaway, I know many people who have and I find it so interesting. I can see the convenience of this option, especially when you have a large family to shop for or you need to make a new purchase when your old TV bites the dust, but I never realized that it was such a heavy phenomenon.
When frogs make the news, it's often regarding yet another species listed as threatened or endangered. It's a distressing time for frog lovers to hear about so many species facing extinction. This week, however, the opposite extreme occurred when it was announced that frogs are taking over the coast of North Carolina. Following dozens of days of record-setting weather, frogs were in optimal positions for breeding and have been reproducing so much and so quickly that they are literally falling from the sky, landing on people's houses and littering the place with poop.
When do we ever not need a bit of hope and healing? I'd say that in times like these we need them more than ever, but I think that's probably been true in most years. Okay, maybe the year Obama was elected was full of lots of hope and good feeling, but we could always use a dose of the Dead. This group of dads from Chapel Hill, NC is keeping the spirit of the Dead alive by covering Grateful Dead songs in their cover band, the Loose Lucies.
Spoiler alert!
I'm not one to go out and spend a bunch of money on crafting supplies to make something that's more expensive than buying it outright. I do know a few friends who do this and more power to them if it makes them happy, but I'd rather support an artist for a $20 project than spend $30 on materials to make it myself, know what I mean? That said, if it's a project that calls for easy, DIY materials that I have at home, or materials that I mostly have with a single purchase (you run out of hot glue after a while, right?), I'm always game for a new craft.
Twitter user @JuliusGoat has gone viral with a thread that attempts to explain the rage, fear and pain that women experience on a daily basis with an analogy about being kicked in the groin. The analogy explains that it would be a world in which men could be randomly kicked by women, anytime, any place, and just be expected to experience this pain because girls will be girls.
Ambient office = 121 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 111 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient office = 67 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 151 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 143 nanosieverts per hour
I have often blogged about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State which is one of the most radioactively contaminated sites on Earth due to the nuclear weapons program that spent decades creating and dumping radioactive materials with little regard to safety. There are areas in many countries that are contaminated with radioactive materials from a variety of causes.
Ambient office = 116 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 123 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 136 nanosieverts per hour
The La Creusot Foundry is owned by Framatome which is a unit of the French state-controlled utility EDF. The Foundry has a huge forge which is one of the few in the world that can handle the creation of a reactor containment vessel for a nuclear reactor.
Ambient office = 114 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 102 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour
I have often blogged about the high cost of constructing nuclear power plants. Not one nuclear power plant built in the U.S. has ever been completed within the original cost estimate and within the original schedule. After decades, the U.S. started constructing four new commercial nuclear power reactors, two in South Carolina and two in Georgia.
Ambient office = 117 nanosieverts per hour
Ambient outside = 115 nanosieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = 112 nanosieverts per hour
Where I live, our local botanical garden features an annual Ghouls in the Garden event that always sells out! The event allows kids to dress up and witness some cool things in the garden like story book characters, the circus, trolls and more. They get to trick or treat and of course see the beautiful garden exhibits.
