https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/expedition-arctic-pole-inaccessibility

Do you want to go along on an adventure of a lifetime? Teams for 20-day legs of the expedition forming soon - Apply for consideration!

[snip]
Citizen scientists tag along — and help fund the expedition

McNeill, who has more than 30 years of experience exploring polar regions, is not deterred. Joining him at various intervals during the 80-day, 800-mile "Last Pole" expedition will be 28 citizen scientists from around the globe. Each will pay more than $21,000, a pricey ticket that includes funding for the adventure, supplies, more than 30 days of polar and medical training, and a guaranteed spot on one of four 20-day legs of the journey.

"They will face fiercely low temperatures, disintegrating ice flows beneath their feet and the possibility of encountering hungry polar bears," McNeill writes on his Ice Warrior site. "And all to further our knowledge and benchmark the condition of the Arctic Ocean."

During the course of the expedition, the team will collect data on sea ice, weather and other info crucial to determining the present condition of the Arctic Ocean. For Nico Kaufmann, a 30-year-old Scot from Edinburgh, the adventure was just too good an opportunity to pass up.

"I'm very pleased to be taking part in something which will help save the planet. It is a real privilege to be involved in an expedition as important as this," he told the Edinburgh News. "To be in the environment there will be incredible. To go somewhere no one has been before is so exciting because we do not know what we will find. When I told my wife she thought I was a bit mental. But she is supporting me and now I’m excited to go on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure."

You can follow the adventure from the cozy comfort of home by visiting the Last Pole website.

Horses Found Shot and Killed

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/12/23/animal-cruelty-kentucky-six-more-horses-found-shot-and-killed/2732471001/

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Six horses were found shot and killed near a strip mining site, according to the animal rescue group Dumas Rescue.

Dumas Rescue said the six horses appeared to have been killed during the same shooting that killed at least 15 other horses along U.S. 23, WYMT reported.

The other horses' bodies were found early last week. Dumas Rescue posted on Facebook on Sunday evening about the six additional horses. [snip]

The culprit could face animal cruelty charges at a minimum, according to authorities. There is a $20,000 reward for information on the incident. Numerous animal rescue and welfare organizations, along with individual donors, contributed funds in hopes of finding answers.


Authorities find 15 horses fatally shot in eastern Kentucky
https://www.10tv.com/article/authorities-find-15-horses-fatally-shot-eastern-kentucky-2019-dec

PUBLISHED: 12/18/19 10:56 PM EST UPDATED: 12/19/19 12:53 PM EST
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. — ​At least 15 free-roaming horses appear to have been shot and killed at an abandoned strip mining location in eastern Kentucky this week.

Among them were very young and pregnant horses, authorities said.

"Seeing them gunned down is ... it's beyond horrific," Tonya Conn, president of the local group Dumas Rescue, told CBS News affiliate WYMT-TV. "These horses were scattered in various, various places, distances from each other so they had been shot, and they'd scattered then hunted and shot down."

[snip]

Glad to know that contributions toward a reward for info leading to locating the "hit person(s)" grew and grew. The problem of free-ranging livestock in poor rural areas isn't easily solved where everyone's personal and county/state budgets are stretched. I went to this rescue group's FB page...Scrolling down to May 5, 2018 there's a post/comments that reflect many of the political situations that exist in this rural area coal country...SMH syndrome

I-O

56-27 - Congrats Buckeyes!

"ghosting" their employers, i.e., no show/no call, situations. Does anyone have any anecdotes about the reverse: employers "ghosting" hourly new hires that go weeks without being scheduled to clock in after paperwork and training. DH is pushing 4 weeks without a work schedule for a job not billed as "seasonal," and with a nearly full-time 35-hour availability for a PT gig; his paperwork has been signed, he's done training, passing their tests and background checks; he's even received mailings regarding the employer's benefit package. Is there a "secret" push by RW leaning employers to fudge reportable Labor statistics or perhaps identity theft of personal information? I'm getting awfully suspicious about "real" employment at this large corporate big box? Our budget could sure use a paycheck, and yet: no scheduled hours even after checking personally with HR? Please share any experience about this strange phenomenon in hiring practices.

I've "stayed too long at the fair." No amount of counseling, medication, trying to communicate those "I" messages, embarking on extreme austerity measures for our well-being, agreeing to a "new start," has yet to impress upon him the fact that he needs to earn my trust by being both fiscally responsible and maritally responsible. I'm tired of the charade for the sake of what? Kids are grown, thank god, and say it's 50% my fault - I've lost all my self-confidence; all of my attempted savings; all my drive to turn anything around by accepting yet another empty promise. There's always something, most of all lost jobs, lost/homes, lost good name; lost ability for the kind of medical care each of us needs--vision, dental, hearing, counseling; yet another unpaid bill, none of them in my name--not the lease, not the utilities, not transportation (cars); I buy the food and hope it lasts a month; I pay for our cells; then there's the lies of forgetfulness, priorities, hidden mailings (only one key). I no longer believe that "love" looks like this..

Is there support or any assistance at shelters, hospital rooms (not suicidal), for a senior enduring elder non-physical domestic (emotional, psychological, financial) abuse? Tomorrow will be our 49th anniversary; clearly he does not respect this status or feel much gratitude for his 70 x 7 chances to make even a short-term attempt until and unless I'm already so upset it makes his case of my "fault," but I'm way beyond tears, daily prayer, meditations to still the brain pain; it's obvious the heart is weak to end it all.

I feel so foolish in this long history of enabling this charade of his; I feel as though, over the years, I've created my own charade and failure. Please help me understand why I feel so disenfranchised. so invisible, and not worth his effort. I feel totally lost...

Intelligence, Not Mindset, Predicts Learning Ability https://www.labroots.com/trending/neuroscience/16147/intelligence-mindset-predicts-learning-ability

[snip]

This research comes after a recent review of research on mindset that found a weak correlation between having a growth mindset and academic achievement (Sisk: 2019). Finding that encouraging children to believe they can improve their abilities had no significant effect on their academic achievement, researchers hope that this research, combined with the more recent study on learning to play the piano, may inform education practices for better.
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Add to that: Whoa! https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-babies-ex/

Fact or Fiction?: Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter
Is the so-called "Mozart effect" a scientifically supported, developmental leg up or a media-fueled "scientific legend"?

[snip]

Chabris says the real danger isn't in this questionable marketing, but in parents shirking roles they are evolutionarily meant to serve. "It takes away from other kinds of interaction that might be beneficial for children," such as playing with them and keeping them engaged via social activity. That is the key to a truly intelligent child, not the symphonies of a long-dead Austrian composer.

===============================================================================
Well, so listening nor playing a tune has much bearing on people's intelligence...so how do we reach the politically unenlightened? Even early interaction looks pretty much impossible, and critical thinking skills could be pretty much unteachable - you got it or you don't depending on where one falls on the Bell curve of inherent "intelligence." That is disturbing and discouraging - is it even worth the higher cost of homes when buying the school system? Stupid is as stupid does is the bottom line? Not good teachers, not social life or experience? Nothing to be done except buy more protection from the Zombies? Oh, the apocalyse must surely be on its way!

stop going back for a "little taste" while it cools off.

Looks like Joe really PO'd Mariah! But who is really using who? What a relationship! They are both kicking up Hell in California...
and we're all stuck in the middle of this terrifying drama.

Oh way out here they got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire Joe
And they called the winds Mariah!

Wow, he's HOT!

at the library. It's a Quickread for one week, but because it was reserved I get it for the normal checkout period. YAY!