15°

jimhelm • Jan 23, 2013 12:19 am
Is too fucking cold.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 23, 2013 12:20 am
13
BigV • Jan 23, 2013 12:26 am
That sounds like the "cold air mass" that's been parked over our area for a week. only today have they lifted the burn ban due to zero wind. we didn't get that cold, but it did freeze for several days, highs in the mid thirties.

cuddle up, y'all.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 23, 2013 12:29 am
High was 22.
BigV • Jan 23, 2013 2:27 am
I like living near salt water.
Big Sarge • Jan 23, 2013 2:33 am
We were in the high 40's today
DanaC • Jan 23, 2013 6:18 am
We're up at 30 at the moment. Heading to down to the mid 20s this aft.

Warmer than it's been the past few days!



[eta] normally I'd post in Celcius, but am assuming you guys are posting in fahrenheit, so have done same this time
Griff • Jan 23, 2013 6:33 am
-3 this fine brisk morning
orthodoc • Jan 23, 2013 6:35 am
7 F with a wind chill that takes it lower. Time to pull out the parka.
Chocolatl • Jan 23, 2013 7:23 am
It took me a minute to realize you guys are talking Fahrenheit. I can't even wrap my brain around temperatures that cold!

41F here currently.
Trilby • Jan 23, 2013 7:51 am
-10 yesterday. they delayed school for two hours. Family just moved down from Alaska was on local TV they were like WTF?!
Aliantha • Jan 23, 2013 7:52 am
HA! It's pretty hot here. 11pm and still around 70.

sometimes I wish for freezing temps.
Spexxvet • Jan 23, 2013 9:36 am
jimhelm;849618 wrote:
Is too fucking cold.


xoxoxoBruce;849619 wrote:
13


xoxoxoBruce;849621 wrote:
High was 22.


What makes it worse was that it was in the 50s three days ago.:thepain:
glatt • Jan 23, 2013 10:00 am
It was 62 three days ago here, and 15 this morning when I walked a mile to the Metro. Too cold.
footfootfoot • Jan 23, 2013 10:30 am
7° this morning. 1° last night.

It's 20° in the mud room/pantry.
Chocolatl • Jan 23, 2013 10:32 am
When it's that cold outside, what temperature do you keep it inside your home?

ETA: It's 65F in my house and I am freezing my ass off. Obviously I can never again move outside of Florida.
jimhelm • Jan 23, 2013 10:47 am
My thermostat stays at 64, and I'm comfortable in a tshirt.... But spex is right....the sudden drop is the killer part. This is the first time I recall it being below 30 this year.
footfootfoot • Jan 23, 2013 11:22 am
We keep our house at 62°-64°. We have 8" of blown cellulose insulation and thermal pane windows so the temp is pretty constant and there are almost no drafts. The house if pretty tight. An engineer friend of mine was explaining to me that our bodies radiate heat towards cold windows (heat moves to cold) and the bigger the temperature differential the more heat we radiate toward to cold (I think it is perceived) The upshot is, hang a curtain in your window and the room will seem less cold to you.

These folks know from cold. We are all soft bellies.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2266374/Oymyakon-coldest-village-earth-Temperatures-drop-71-2C-locals-wear-glasses-freeze-faces-school-shuts-falls-52C.html?ICO=most_read_module
orthodoc • Jan 23, 2013 12:19 pm
I like radiant heat inside when it's cold outside. That's one thing I dislike about apartment living - no woodstove.

In Moosonee the winters were -40 and summers were 95 F. People liked the winter far more. BUT - we had indoor toilets! Outdoor toilets, NOOO!!! :eek:

Of course, the local Cree people went camping in winter with no complaint. So really, I am a wuss.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 23, 2013 12:25 pm
Bounced from 10 to 21 in only six hours, but looks like it'll stall there. They're saying maybe 32 on Sunday.
On the bright side, we've had jackshit for snow. Way better than the 90" we had a couple years ago. Usually when it gets real cold around here, any moisture freezes and falls before it can get here. It's that 28 to 32 degree weather can dump feets of the shit.
Sundae • Jan 23, 2013 12:36 pm
Below 32F here. But 15C is -9. Never experienced that in my life as far as I am aware.
But what can I say. Protected vale in maritime climate.

Too hot in the house.
Mum gone for the night, housesitting.
HURRAY! She's still ignoring me so the house feels nicer without her.
Currently 80F (27C). But Dad is revelling in it and as he pays the gas bills, who I am to cavil [melt, melt].
Gravdigr • Jan 23, 2013 1:12 pm
44 outside rfn.

♪ ♫ It's like a heatwave!! ♪ ♫

76 (!) inside, that's a little warm...usually more like 70/72.
Trilby • Jan 23, 2013 2:15 pm
Mine's at 69 right now. I usually get hot flashes at night and drop it to 66 then freeze my ass off in the morning.


My house is NOT well insulated and the windows are from the day it was built-1957. I get ice on the INSIDE of one window.
footfootfoot • Jan 23, 2013 2:22 pm
orthodoc;849724 wrote:

In Moosonee ...

OK, you might as well have lived in Baffin Bay. Even if it was the southern end of Hudson Bay (James)

What on earth made you leave there and, more importantly, how did you manage that?
ZenGum • Jan 23, 2013 6:30 pm
Trilby, consider sticking a layer of bubble-wrap over your windows. It lets in light but the layer of air really reduces heat loss.

I'd call it redneck double-glazing, except rednecks don't double glaze.
footfootfoot • Jan 23, 2013 8:09 pm
After a fashion...
orthodoc • Jan 23, 2013 8:27 pm
footfootfoot;849769 wrote:
OK, you might as well have lived in Baffin Bay. Even if it was the southern end of Hudson Bay (James)

What on earth made you leave there and, more importantly, how did you manage that?


Why did I leave? I went south for a planned C-section (long story). And it really wasn't a feasible long-term situation. Not quite sure what you mean about managing - do you mean leaving, or arranging to live there in the first place?

I'm impressed you located the place. You're about the first person south of Timmins, Ontario, who's managed that. :p:
JBKlyde • Jan 23, 2013 10:22 pm
No problems in paradice
footfootfoot • Jan 23, 2013 10:49 pm
orthodoc;849817 wrote:
Why did I leave? I went south for a planned C-section (long story). And it really wasn't a feasible long-term situation. Not quite sure what you mean about managing - do you mean leaving, or arranging to live there in the first place?

I'm impressed you located the place. You're about the first person south of Timmins, Ontario, who's managed that. :p:


I guess I was being facetious in asking why would you leave? I assumed you were raised there and that led me to wonder how one could escape from a place as rural as that. I can only begin to imagine how many otter pelts it would take to come up with not only trainfare from the hinterlands but also a couch to crash on while you found a job.

I sense a fascinating, if chilly, story.

oh and you should be impressed; I can highlight, rightclick, and search google with the best of them.
ZenGum • Jan 23, 2013 11:44 pm
Protip:

I can highlight, rightclick, and search google with the best of them.


Thanks, you've just improved my productivity by at least 33%!
footfootfoot • Jan 24, 2013 12:53 am
Improved it or diminished it?
orthodoc • Jan 24, 2013 6:01 am
footfootfoot;849821 wrote:
I assumed you were raised there and that led me to wonder how one could escape from a place as rural as that. I can only begin to imagine how many otter pelts it would take to come up with not only trainfare from the hinterlands but also a couch to crash on while you found a job.

I sense a fascinating, if chilly, story.


:lol: Neither fascinating nor romantic; I am no female Nanook of the North. Born in Sudbury, grew up in Ottawa; spent a year in Moosonee in payback to the government for a year's worth of loans during medical school. We had a choice of small northern towns but decided to pass on the CNR and Kimberley-Clark ghost towns along Lake Superior's north shore and go somewhere 'interesting'.

It was definitely interesting but not sustainable. A good experience for a year, though. Oh, and the Polar Bear Express (I kid you not, that's the name of the train that comes in three times a week) isn't the only way out. Seven-seater bush planes flew to Timmins regularly, and the 'big plane', the 47-seater, went once a week. The big plane was the only one that ever crashed.

Eta there were no roads in.
Clodfobble • Jan 24, 2013 8:27 am
orthodoc wrote:
spent a year in Moosonee in payback to the government for a year's worth of loans during medical school.


I like programs like this, since rural areas would get zero doctors otherwise, but you have to imagine it's a little frustrating to have a new, fresh-out-of-medical-school doctor every year. No continuity of care, no sense of "This looks like nothing, but if you really knew my medical history you would know there's more here than meets the eye." On the other hand, if you get a shitty argumentative doctor, at least you know he'll be gone in a year and you get to try again.
Lamplighter • Jan 24, 2013 8:55 am
orthodoc;849834 wrote:
:lol: <snip>
It was definitely interesting but not sustainable. A good experience for a year, though.
Oh, and the Polar Bear Express (I kid you not, that's the name of the train
that comes in three times a week) isn't the only way out.
<snip>


One of the most interesting (to me) TV programs on PBS
several years ago was about the 200 mile train ride north to Moosonee.

At the start, passengers were self-occupied with reading, sleeping, etc.
But as the journey lengthened, conversations between passengers began as you would expect.
The surprising thing was that gradually, the sound of one conversationwas overlaid with another.
It amazed to me that it was possible to follow the simultaneous conversations with no real trouble.
Then, even a third conversation was added to the mix.
This took some getting used to, but after a few minutes, it was again possible to follow all three conversations.
Granted, the topics were what you would expect among strangers, but the program was memorable.

The main line story after the train arrived in Moosonee
was the annual migration of polar bears through the town, and
I think it ended with nighttime scenes of bears at the town dump.

I've heard polar bears are very dangerous, more so than browns or even grizzles.
I've since wondered if and how the townspeople ever get used to the presence of their bears,
and just how dangerous they are in Moosonee.
footfootfoot • Jan 24, 2013 11:13 am
orthodoc;849834 wrote:
:lol: Neither fascinating nor romantic; I am no female Nanook of the North.


I'll take my romance and fascination where I can find it. ;)
Sundae • Jan 24, 2013 11:50 am
footfootfoot;849853 wrote:
I'll take my romance and fascination where I can find it. ;)

I've lost mine, so if you find some more do check it's really yours.
Happy Monkey • Jan 24, 2013 11:58 am
First snow of the season that stuck today. Enough that I had to brush of the car, but not much more.
orthodoc • Jan 24, 2013 12:09 pm
The Polar Bear Express is definitely an experience. It was generally very sociable, as you say, and it would stop pretty well anywhere along the tracks if flagged down. Some people lived in extremely remote locations along the general vicinity of the tracks.

One story - my ex was asked one day to go in the medical helicopter to pick up a laboring woman whose husband had brought her from bush camp to a spot by the tracks and radioed for help. The helicopter pilot elected to land on a long high trestle bridge, in the center of the long span, because the bush was so dense everywhere else. They landed, shut down, and started walking toward the woman's husband at the end of the railway bridge, when the man began waving his arms and screaming. The train was coming.

There wasn't time for them to make it to the end of the bridge; they sprinted back to the helicopter, got it started, and pulled off the bridge JUST as the Polar Bear Express came through.

They did pick up the woman after that and she made it to the hospital on Moose Factory Island before delivering.

And polar bears ... they ARE the baddest bears. Not only are they the biggest; they fear nothing, and they won't just kill you if you surprise them or invade their territory, they will actively hunt you. Have you seen the documentaries on polar bears in Manitoba, where they take people to look at them in enormous tank-like CAT machines? You need a machine like that. The local people in Moosonee hunted just about everything but they stayed far away when the polar bears came around.

I have a phobia of bears and took my brother-in-law's shotgun to Moosonee with me. What an idiot! A bear would've regarded that shot as no more than black flies biting. :lol:

Fortunately we were never visited by any bears. They didn't come right into town the year we were there.
glatt • Jan 24, 2013 1:06 pm
Polar bears are scary. Check out this series of pictures at the link.

Spoiler: The guy made it inside the red truck before being eaten.
[ATTACH]42551[/ATTACH]
Lamplighter • Jan 24, 2013 1:17 pm
Scary indeed.

Whenever I see pics of people in dangerous situations, I think to myself:

"... and who and where was the person taking the pictures ? "
jimhelm • Jan 24, 2013 2:00 pm
yeah... not many animals will attempt to kill something nearly their own size to eat.

Most bear attacks are territorial or cub protection. Polar bears are trying to EAT YOU.

like a Lion or a Shark. you're food, bro. get in mah belleh.
Trilby • Jan 24, 2013 2:04 pm
It was clearly the man's fault.

He was on the bear's lawn.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 24, 2013 5:18 pm
Most bears see people as a danger, triggering flight or fight.
Polar Bears see people as food.
ZenGum • Jan 24, 2013 6:45 pm
yeah... not many animals will attempt to kill something nearly their own size to eat.


I've seen a doco where some whales (several tons each) got trapped by shifting ice and had to surface to breathe at one small hole in the sea ice.

Polar bears gathered around, and as the whales came up, they would jump in and attack. Eventually, there was a dead whale, dragged up onto the ice, with a few bears feasting on it.

:eek:

Aussie animals will generally sting you and leave you to die, but only if you piss them off by stepping on them or something. Sharks might bite you by mistake, but the only serious human-eating predators are the crocs, which can't hunt on land. We don't have anything that will actively hunt you down and kill you because it wants to.

Except Ivan Milat, and he's in prison.
footfootfoot • Jan 24, 2013 6:52 pm
Could Ivan beat a polar bear in a cage match?
Aliantha • Jan 24, 2013 10:12 pm
I think we should put Ivan and a polar bear in a cage and find out.
lumberjim • Jan 25, 2013 12:10 am
I would fight a bear before I laid down and played dead. It would probably get me killed, but goddamn it, I'm not food.
BigV • Jan 25, 2013 12:46 am
not yet.
ZenGum • Jan 25, 2013 3:27 am
Also, the play dead trick ... I've seen (docos of) polar bears scavenging. Like, months old rotting rancid whale carcass. Does the play dead trick work with polars?

With non-polar bears, I reckon if Jim stood up tall and wide and roared a bit, there's fair chance a bear would back off. Predators can often be quite wary in choosing prey. Unless they're really hungry. Which they often are. Especially bears, what with that hibernation and all.

Ok, Jim, if you get attacked by a bear, the first thing you must do is look around to see if there are any berries about.
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 25, 2013 6:24 am
Big Browns and Grizzles, try to play dead.
Blacks, fight like hell.
Polars, you're fucked.
Griff • Jan 25, 2013 6:29 am
whs
Trilby • Jan 25, 2013 7:50 am
Why are polar bears so aggressive as to eat man meat? They are descendants of the Brown bear; maybe it's just too slim pickings up there for them.
Clodfobble • Jan 25, 2013 8:50 am

A spokesman said: 'In all instances in which a human was killed by a polar bear, the animal in question was undernourished or had been provoked.'


Oh, it's just undernourished, you see. As in, hungry. So don't worry, after the polar bear mauls you, we know for sure that it will also eat you, and won't just leave you lying there as a message to the rest of us. It's not a complete bastard--they use every part of the human, you know.
footfootfoot • Jan 25, 2013 1:14 pm
"Some times you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you."

And then there's Grizzly Man

[YOUTUBE]gWycuaWJFCM[/YOUTUBE]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Man
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/
Trilby • Jan 25, 2013 1:45 pm
yeah, that guy was crazy.

You know, they say the jungle gets to people; I think any isolated wild place will eventually drive a person mad, bad or insane. Heart of Darkness stuff.

I heard there was video of the bear attacking him but of course it's never been shown.

I saw video of a 'trained' bear who killed a guy who just wanted his pic taken with the bear---the guy made an unexpected move and the bear looks like he hardly touched him but he killed him. Was v. sad and sorry---the guy was the cousin of the 'bear trainer'-----this particular bear was in a Will Ferrell movie...can't recall the name....
footfootfoot • Jan 25, 2013 2:07 pm
There's audio of the killing. The guy dropped the camera. The bear ate him and his GF. And it was a sickly, malnourished bear who failed to put on enough weight and go into hibernation when all the other bears did. It was desperate.
Trilby • Jan 25, 2013 2:18 pm
Yikes.


I guess Stephen Colbert is right. The number one threat to America is - bears
orthodoc • Jan 25, 2013 6:17 pm
This discussion doesn't help my phobia at all, you know.

Just sayin' ....
ZenGum • Jan 25, 2013 6:33 pm
It's not phobia of it is rational.


Now, drop bears, you don't even want to hear about...
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 26, 2013 12:24 am
At last, science has discovered why Polar Bears are so dangerous... they're Irish. :p:

The Arctic's dwindling population of polar bears all descend from a single mamma brown bear which lived 20,000 to 50,000 years ago in present-day Ireland, new research suggests.

DNA samples from the great white carnivores - taken from across their entire range in Russia, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Alaska - revealed that every individual's lineage could be traced back to this Irish forebear.

The analysis of genetic material inherited only through females also showed brown and polar bears mated periodically over the last 100,000 years.
tw • Jan 26, 2013 12:52 am
Trilby;850035 wrote:
The number one threat to America is - bears
On the west coast, a greater concern is Ravens and Ray.

Playing dead is not an option.
footfootfoot • Jan 26, 2013 10:56 am
xoxoxoBruce;850143 wrote:
At last, science has discovered why Polar Bears are so dangerous... they're Irish. :p:
The Arctic's dwindling population of polar bears all descend from a single mamma brown bear which lived 20,000 to 50,000 years ago in present-day Ireland, new research suggests.

DNA samples from the great white carnivores - taken from across their entire range in Russia, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Alaska - revealed that every individual's lineage could be traced back to this Irish forebear.

The analysis of genetic material inherited only through females also showed brown and polar bears mated periodically over the last 100,000 years.


Irish foreBears? Oh the bearmanatee
jimhelm • Jan 26, 2013 11:34 am
The bears can smell their menstruation!

-Brick Tamlin
xoxoxoBruce • Jan 28, 2013 5:38 am
hello
Spexxvet • Jan 28, 2013 9:25 am
jimhelm;850205 wrote:
The bears can smell their menstruation!

-Brick Tamlin


LOL