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Skywatch: Jump out of bed for the Geminids

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

Stargazing will be worth losing sleep over this week as you bundle up to enjoy the annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the best of the year. It reaches its peak very late this coming Wednesday night into Thursday morning, Dec. 13 and 14.Meteor showers occur when the Earth runs into a debris trail of dust and small pebbles as it orbits around the sun. Most debris trails are left behind by passing comets that wander into our part of the solar system. The Geminids are unusual because the debris trail was left behind by a messy asteroid dubbed by astronomers as 3200 Phaethon. This asteroid was discovered in 1983 and may have a diameter of around three and a half miles. 3200 Phaethon is a real cosmic litterbug! That’s unusual for an asteroid. It has a highly elliptical orbit that swings it by our part of the solar system every year and a half. Each time it passes by, the debris trail is richly refreshed.All meteor showers are best seen from midnight to morning twilight, especially about...

Obituary: For Forest Lake ag educator Bob Marzolf, teaching was a calling

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

Bob Marzolf was an evangelist for agricultural education.Everything a person needs to survive – food, clothing, medicine, shelter – is connected to agriculture, Marzolf told students at Forest Lake Area High School.Bob Marzolf, a longtime agriculture education teacher at Forest Lake Area High School, died Dec. 2, 2023, at his house in Le Sueur, Minn. He was 75. (Courtesy of Jim Marzolf)“He felt strongly about that,” said Mike Miron, a former student who is now the career and tech education/work-based learning coordinator at Forest Lake Area High School. “Agriculture is a core building block of our society – of feeding and clothing and providing for the world. Whether or not it was going to be their career, students needed to be aware of these things.”Marzolf, who taught agriculture education at Forest Lake for 27 years, died in his sleep on Dec. 2 at his house in Le Sueur. He was 75.Marzolf, who also served as the school’s FFA adviser, loved his job so much that he encouraged others...

Eagan residents push back against proposed Johnson Bros. Liquors distribution center at former BCBS site

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

Johnson Brothers Liquor Co., the third-largest wine distributor in the nation, is eyeing the former Blue Cross Blue Shield site in Eagan for a new warehouse distribution facility, but nearby homeowners have some concerns.Mary Garry, who lives near Blackhawk Lake about a mile from the proposed site, said some 30 Eagan residents attended a meeting Wednesday night to voice their concerns and sign a petition against the potential rezoning of the site, which will be considered by the city council Tuesday.The submitted concept plan hinges on rezoning the 55-acre former Blue Cross Blue Shield campus at 3535 Blue Cross Road from “major office” to “industrial development.” Blue Cross Blue Shield vacated the property over the summer, attributing the change to the company’s shift to a hybrid work model.Johnson Bros., which was established in Minnesota in the 1950s, says it has outgrown its distribution facility at 1999 Shepard Road, near Crosby Farm Park in St. Pa...

Catalytic converter thefts in St. Paul down 95% since pandemic peak, according to police data

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

The buzz of a battery-powered saw biting into an automobile’s exhaust pipe became all too familiar to St. Paulites during the COVID-19 pandemic, as catalytic converter thefts surged to unprecedented levels.But that unwelcome sound is much less common lately, officials say.Reports of stolen catalytic converters in the city have plummeted 95% since peaking in March 2022, according to St. Paul police data.Statistics collected by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety tell a similar story. Reports of auto parts theft statewide have fallen 87% in the same period.What accounts for this dramatic drop?Last fall, authorities broke up a nationwide catalytic converter theft ring, which allegedly included four Minnesota men accused of selling thousands of the devices — cut from area vehicles — to buyers across the country.State lawmakers and local officials also have imposed new restrictions on the sale and transportation of detached catalytic converters, making it a crime ...

A St. Paul church opened six tiny homes for those experiencing homelessness. Officials are praying the effort goes statewide.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

Outgoing, chatty and distractable, Allen Xiong, 29, found a semblance of belonging in St. Paul-area homeless encampments, only to grow tired of seeing his friends and neighbors cleared out every few weeks during the pandemic. Without a similar sense of community, he doubts that whatever housing solutions they were offered stuck.“We just end up right back where we started,” he said. “Nothing’s solved.”Resident Allen Xiong sits on the steps of his micro-home at Mosaic Christian Community’s “Sacred Settlement” at the Wheelock Parkway church in St. Paul on Nov, 29. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)David Doren, 54, was equally tired of living out of his rickety recreational vehicle at leased campsites in Lake Elmo, which required him to relocate every 13 days. He previously spent more than a year living in tents in the woods near St. Paul’s Schmidt Brewery off West Seventh Street.“It was hell,” said Doren, who is known around t...

Maureen Dowd: Sam Altman, sugarcoating the Apocalapse

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

My favorite “Twilight Zone” episode is the one where aliens land and, in a sign of their peaceful intentions, give world leaders a book. Government cryptographers work to translate the alien language. They decipher the title — “To Serve Man” — and that’s reassuring, so interplanetary shuttles are set up.But as the cryptographers proceed, they realize — too late — that it’s a cookbook.That, dear reader, is the story of OpenAI.It was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit to serve man, to keep an eye on galloping artificial intelligence technology and ensure there were guardrails and kill switches — because when AI hits puberty, it will be like aliens landing.When I interviewed them at their makeshift San Francisco headquarters back in 2016, the OpenAI founders — Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman — presented themselves as our Praetorian guard against the future threat of runaway, evil AI, against bad actors and bad bots and all the lords of the cloud who had Mary Shelley...

Readers and writers: Childhood can be tough. These books can help.

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

Childhood can be scary sometimes as youngsters struggle to make sense of their emotions. Thanks to Minneapolis-based Free Spirit Press Publishing, there are lots of good books by knowledgeable people to help kids navigate their feelings and learn about their relationship to the world around them. Free Spirit is an imprint of Teacher Created Materials, publisher of learning tools that support young people’s social, emotional and educational needs. Its mission is to help children and teens think for themselves, overcome challenges and make a difference in the world through illustrated picture books for the little ones. Most of the hardcover Free Spirit books referenced here are $17.99.“Frankie Versus the Food Phantom”: by Erik Talkin, illustrated by Laura Ramos; and “Jesse and the Snack Food Genie”: by Erik Talkinn, illustrated by Maine Diaz.(Courtesy of Free Spirit Publishing.)These books are part of Free Spirit’s Food Justice Books for Kids, a ser...

Ask Amy: High-schooler wants distance from former friend

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

Dear Amy: I’m a girl in 11th grade.In my freshman year, I made friends with “Ruby.”Over time I came to understand that I needed to end the friendship due to Ruby’s troubling behavior toward others and with me.Now, two years later, I have a new friend, “Sammie,” who is also friends with Ruby.I only hang out with Sammie when Ruby is not present.On several occasions when I was talking with Sammie, Ruby joined the conversation.I was cordial, but I tried to limit my contact.Now, when I see Ruby in the hall at school, Ruby waves enthusiastically and calls my name excitedly.I don’t want any contact with Ruby. I don’t want any association with this person’s bad actions, including occasionally being violent.I don’t want to confront Ruby to say I’m not interested in friendship, but Ruby keeps making attempts, suggesting renewing the friendship.How can I gently distance myself from Ruby without causing conflict or hurting this person’s feelings?R...

Bridge: Dec. 10, 2023

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

When today’s East opened one club, South overcalled 1NT, vulnerable. How do you rate that call?South had 16 points, balanced pattern and a club trick, the textbook requirements. Still, 1NT was risky: If North had zilch, South might have been doubled and clobbered. Many experts are reluctant to overcall 1NT with only 16 points.South’s bid was imperfect in another way: His club stopper was “primary.” To act would have been more attractive with Q7,AK82,KQ63,Q54. Then South might have to spend only two of his high-card points to win a club trick, leaving more points to establish tricks elsewhere.As it happened, South’s bid worked out when North transferred to game at spades. West led a club: three, ten, ace. Declarer then embarked on an ill-fated line of play. He took his three high hearts to pitch dummy’s last club and next led a trump to the king.East took the ace and led a low diamond. South put up his king and West took the ace and led the ten of ...

Wet weather, whipping winds set to strike DC area Sunday

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 10:49:03 GMT

D.C., Maryland and Virginia are likely to see more precipitation than sunshine Sunday, as the region deals with a rainy start to the week. Here’s what you need to know.A Flood Watch is expected to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, impacting portions of D.C.; Anne Arundel, Charles, Montgomery, Prince George’s and Howard Counties in Maryland; and Prince William, Loudoun, Fairfax, Fauquier and Stafford Counties in Virginia.The National Weather Service said it expects a day of wet weather, with rain starting after 4 a.m. and continuing through Sunday. Thunderstorms, the service said, could pop up between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., with some storms producing heaving rain.It will be a mild night tonight, with clouds increasing, and rain starting to overspread the area during the second half of the night. pic.twitter.com/UgO8hHE23S— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) December 10, 2023But that isn’t all. The storm’s continued presence through Sunday evening could bring the regio...