Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[erik]

Boy, 4, Shoots Babysitter For Stepping On His Foot

http://cbs2.com/national/shooting.babysitter.ohio.2.900762.html

JACKSON, Ohio (AP) ― Police say a 4-year-old boy in southern Ohio shot his babysitter because the sitter accidentally stepped on his foot. Police said 18-year-old Nathan Beavers and several other teenagers were babysitting several young children in a mobile home in Jackson on Sunday when the shooting occurred.

Witnesses told police the 4-year-old retrieved the shotgun from a bedroom closet and shot Beavers. Police said the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot.

Beavers was hospitalized with minor pellet wounds to his arm and side.

Police say another teen was also injured with shotgun pellets.

Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen said authorities are investigating the shooting. The child has not been charged.

[Firestarter]

I think that snow is wonderful and the best weather in winter is when the air is dry around -5 C (23 F).

I admire you for being able to handle the weather like that. It is a serious task for being able to do it.

One thing though, snow is beautiful, I will give you that - it has a very magical side to it.

[Firestarter]

Juhani, hope you dont mind me asking the question - but do you post these horrible stories on this thread cause you want others to be as miserable as you and hate the world and people in it as much as you do? Why do you post these things in here?

I certainly understand they are what is going on in the world - and you're certainly free to post such things. But - really I feel that - as you do this, you only make yourself sicker. Like your AP is completely stuck on the horror show of the world. And you cannot move your head.

You know, what you focus on - all this world and everyone in it, will be cosmic dust oneday if it makes you feel better. Dont get so hooked on the show presented. There are many other worlds within this world. But you dont stop the world will make you mad and drag you down with it.

[erik]

Great Barrier Reef growing at slowest rate for 400 years

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/4060204/Great-Barrier-Reef-growing-at-slowest-rate-for-400-years.html

They are the rainforests of the sea, providing food and shelter for millions of marine creatures.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 6:38PM GMT 01 Jan 2009


Fish in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which is growing at its slowest rate for at least 400 years.  Photo: REUTERS 

But now tropical coral reefs are facing a renewed - and hidden - threat from environmental change which is stunting their growth, claim scientists.

Researchers looking at the world's biggest and best preserved reef - the Great Barrier Reef - found that it is growing at its slowest rate for at least 400 years.

While the damage is not visible to the naked eye scientists believe it is a "very worrying" indicator which could spell disaster for the biodiversity of the seas.

Corals, which absorb calcium from the sea to make their hard stone like structure, grow in yearly cycles and using x-rays scientists can measure the annual growth rings.

They have discovered that while growth between 1900 and 1970 increased, it has subsequently started to decline at a rapid rate.

Professor Glenn De'ath, who carried out the research at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, believes that the increased acidification of the sea due to the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the main culprit.

With CO2 levels expected to double in the next 50 years, he believes the changes in the biodiversity are "imminent"

The team, which published the findings in the journal Science, looked at a total of 328 colonies spanning the 1,600 mile long reef which is off the north east coast of Australia.

They found that calcification rates increased 5.4 per cent between 1900 and 1970, but have dropped 14.2 per cent from 1990 to 2005, mainly due to a slowdown in growth from 1.43 centimetres per year to 1.24 centimetres per year.

Clive Wilkinson, global coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, said decline is "here and now and over the past decade, not some time in the future, as we predicted."

"This has been happening under our noses," he added.

[Firestarter]

Professor Glenn De'ath

Interesting name, remind me of Death, and also Da'ath.

Ah, well, what can you do. Easy come easy go for the stubborn who wish to indulge in suffering:

[Firestarter]

Btw I should add, they got depressing, glum looking faces like... someone I know... just ... someone...

I wonder... who...

[Firestarter]

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8Jo29zxDaQ4/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Jo29zxDaQ4"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/8Jo29zxDaQ4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/8Jo29zxDaQ4&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1</a>

[erik]

Climate scientists: it's time for 'Plan B'

Poll of international experts by The Independent reveals consensus that CO2 cuts have failed – and their growing support for technological intervention

By Steve Connor, Science Editor and Chris Green
Friday, 2 January 2009

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/climate-scientists-its-time-for-plan-b-1221092.html

An emergency "Plan B" using the latest technology is needed to save the world from dangerous climate change, according to a poll of leading scientists carried out by The Independent. The collective international failure to curb the growing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has meant that an alternative to merely curbing emissions may become necessary.

The plan would involve highly controversial proposals to lower global temperatures artificially through daringly ambitious schemes that either reduce sunlight levels by man-made means or take CO2 out of the air. This "geoengineering" approach – including schemes such as fertilising the oceans with iron to stimulate algal blooms – would have been dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but is now being seen by the majority of scientists we surveyed as a viable emergency backup plan that could save the planet from the worst effects of climate change, at least until deep cuts are made in CO2 emissions.

What has worried many of the experts, who include recognised authorities from the world's leading universities and research institutes, as well as a Nobel Laureate, is the failure to curb global greenhouse gas emissions through international agreements, namely the Kyoto Treaty, and recent studies indicating that the Earth's natural carbon "sinks" are becoming less efficient at absorbing man-made CO2 from the atmosphere.

Levels of CO2 have continued to increase during the past decade since the treaty was agreed and they are now rising faster than even the worst-case scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body. In the meantime the natural absorption of CO2 by the world's forests and oceans has decreased significantly. Most of the scientists we polled agreed that the failure to curb emissions of CO2, which are increasing at a rate of 1 per cent a year, has created the need for an emergency "plan B" involving research, development and possible implementation of a worldwide geoengineering strategy.

Just over half – 54 per cent – of the 80 international specialists in climate science who took part in our survey agreed that the situation is now so dire that we need a backup plan that involves the artificial manipulation of the global climate to counter the effects of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. About 35 per cent of respondents disagreed with the need for a "plan B", arguing that it would distract from the main objective of cutting CO2 emissions, with the remaining 11 per cent saying that they did not know whether a geoengineering strategy is needed or not.

Almost everyone who thought that geoengineering should be studied as a possible plan B said that it must not be seen as an alternative to international agreements on cutting carbon emissions but something that runs in parallel to binding treaties in case climate change runs out of control and there an urgent need to cool the planet quickly.

Geoengineering was dismissed as a distraction a few years ago but it has recently become a serious topic of research. Next summer, for example, the Royal Society, in London, is due to publish a report on the subject, led by Professor John Shepherd of the National Oceanography Centre at Southampton University. Professor Shepherd was one of the scientists who said that a plan B was needed because he was now less optimistic about the prospects of curbing CO2 levels since Kyoto was agreed, and less optimistic about the ability of the Earth's climate system to cope with the expected CO2 increases. "Geoengineering options... must not be allowed to detract from efforts to reduce CO2 emissions directly," said Professor Shepherd, who studies the interaction between the climate and oceans. In answer to the question of whether scientists were more optimistic or less optimistic about the ability of the climate system to cope with increases in man-made CO2 without dangerous climate change, just one out of the 80 respondents to our survey was more optimistic, 72 per cent were less optimistic, and 23 per cent felt about the same.

Professor James Lovelock, a geo-scientist and author of the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth is a quasi-living organism, is one of those who is less optimistic. He believes that a plan B is urgently needed. "I never thought that the Kyoto agreement would lead to any useful cut back in greenhouse gas emissions so I am neither more nor less optimistic now about prospect of curbing CO2 compared to 10 years ago. I am, however, less optimistic now about the ability of the Earth's climate system to cope with expected increases in atmospheric carbon levels compared with 10 years ago," he told The Independent. "I strongly agree that we now need a 'plan B' where a geoengineering strategy is drawn up in parallel with other measures to curb CO2 emissions."

Among those who oppose geoengineering is Professor David Archer, a geophysicist at Chicago University and expert on ocean chemistry. "Carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere will continue to affect climate for many millennia," he said. "Relying on geoengineering schemes such as sulphate aerosols would be analogous to putting the planet on life support. If future humanity failed to pay its 'climate bill' – a bill that we left them, thank you very much – they would bear the full brunt of climate change within a very short time."

Gummer set for green role

The former Tory cabinet member who publicly fed his daughter a beefburger during the outbreak of so-called "mad cow disease" is in line for a leading role in helping the Government fight against global warming, writes Nigel Morris.

John Gummer, who served as Environment Secretary in the previous Conservative government, has been shortlisted for the post of chairman of the Committee on Climate Change. He is one of three candidates being discussed in Whitehall to succeed Baron Turner of Ecchinswell. The others are Rachel Lomax, a former Treasury official who has recently retired as a deputy governor of the Bank of England, and Sir John Harman, former chairman of the Environment Agency.

Mr Gummer, 69, has been a Conservative activist for almost half a century and has spent 34 years as an MP. He represents the safe seat of Suffolk Coastal. A 16-year spell in government culminated with his promotion by John Major to Environment Secretary, when he was regarded as a pioneering minister, introducing the landfill tax and the fuel-price escalator.

Mr Gummer said last night he knew nothing about the vacant post.

Fixing the planet Could technology help save the world?

Injecting the air with particles to reflect sunlight

Volcanic eruptions release huge amounts of sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere, where they reflect sunlight. After Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, sulphates reflected enough sunlight to cool the Earth by 0.5C for a year or two. The Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen suggested in 2006 that it may be possible to inject artificial sulphate particles into the upper atmosphere – the stratosphere. However, the idea does not address ocean acidification caused by rising CO2 levels. There may be side-effects such as acid rain and adverse effects on agriculture.

Creating low clouds over the oceans

Another variation on the theme of increasing the Earth's albedo, or reflectivity to sunlight, is to pump water vapour into the air to stimulate cloud formation over the sea. John Latham of the United States National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado is working with Stephen Salter of Edinburgh University and Mike Smith at Leeds to atomise seawater to produce tiny droplets to form low-level maritime clouds that cover part of the oceanic surface. The only raw material is seawater and the process can be quickly turned off. The cloud cover would only affect the oceans, but still lower global temperatures.

Fertilising the sea with iron filings

This idea arises from the fact that the limiting factor in the multiplication of phytoplankton – tiny marine plants – is the lack of iron salts in the sea. When scientists add iron to "dead" areas of the sea, the result is a phytoplankton bloom which absorbs CO2. The hope is that carbon taken up by the microscopic plants will sink to deep layers of the ocean, and be taken out of circulation. Experiments support the idea, but blooms may be eaten by animals so carbon returns to the atmosphere as CO2.

Mixing the deep water of the ocean

The Earth scientist James Lovelock, working with Chris Rapley of the Science Museum in London, devised a plan to put giant tubes into the seas to take surface water rich in dissolved CO2 to lower depths where it will not surface. The idea is to take CO2 out of the short-term carbon cycle, cutting the gas in the atmosphere. Critics say it may bring carbon locked away in the deep ocean to the surface.

Giant mirrors in space

Some scientists suggest it would be possible to deflect sunlight with a giant mirror or a fleet of small mirrors between the Earth and the Sun. The scheme would be costly and prompt debate over who controls it. Many scientists see it as contrary to the idea of working with the Earth's systems.

[Firestarter]

Professor James Lovelock, a geo-scientist and author of the Gaia hypothesis, in which the Earth is a quasi-living organism, is one of those who is less optimistic.

Quasi-living organism? Damn. I guess the Earth wont be his witness.

[erik]

You don't say... Even sex sales drop in hard times

US porn industry seeks multi-billion dollar bailout

Porn baron Larry Flynt is seeking a $5 billion bailout from Washington to rejuvenate the industry, which he says is suffering because of the economic downturn.
 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4165049/US-porn-industry-seeks-multi-billion-dollar-bailout.html

By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 12:55AM GMT 08 Jan 2009

The Hustler magazine founder has teamed up with fellow adult entertainment mogul Joe Francis, creator of the Girls Gone Wild video series, to approach Congress for the same kind of financial assistance recently approved for car manufacturers.

The pair have asked the 111th Congress, which convened on Tuesday with the economy at the top of its agenda, "to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America" with a bailout.

"Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses, (and) we feel we deserve the same consideration," Francis said in a statement.

"In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more, the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."

"The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three," Owen Moogan, a spokesman for Flynt, told CNN.

"The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine."

In an interview with entertainment news website TMZ, Francis admitted the move was more of a "precautionary measure" than an emergency rescue, "but as long as the government is handing out money, we want to be there to take it."

The pair acknowledge that although DVD sales and rentals have dropped 22 per cent over the past year, online traffic has continued to grow. "The 13-billion-dollar industry is in no fear of collapse," they say. "But why take chances?" Francis, who was last year freed from almost a year in jail after pleading no contest to child abuse and prostitution charges in a plea deal, told CNN they planned to deliver the request "to our congressmen and (Secretary of the Treasury Henry) Paulson" by the end of Wednesday.

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind," Flynt said in a statement. People were "too depressed to be sexually active", which was "very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such, but they cannot do without sex." He said the only way Congress could "rejuvenate" America's sexual appetite was "by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly." There was no response from Congress to the request.

[Firestarter]

Oh good old Larry Flynt. I saw today he's suing his nephews, family trouble and the courts. He's always liked courts and attention.

I dont think Larry's fears are founded in this case. Rest assured, American, good times or bad, will never stop flowering. And it will be the last thing all will be doing before an angry bomb is dropped on us - if ever happens. Say goodbye to all loved ones, flower and be gone. Its the American way, and all the America haters cannot take that, out of America. Peace and Love night all, saying goodbye to my thirty-something self. next time you see me ill be a snake with new skin

[erik]

From The Times
January 10, 2009
Weather Eye: Europe in grip of brutal freeze
Paul Simons

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article5484774.ece

Europe was in the grip of a brutal freeze this week. Huge snowfalls on Wednesday caused widespread travel disruption and were blamed for at least 12 deaths across Europe. While England shivered in temperatures dropping to minus 12C (10F), Berlin froze in minus 21C (-6F) and Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, recorded minus 23C (-9F). This outbreak of intense cold was blamed on a large high-pressure system, stretching from the UK to southern Russia, that dragged down cold Siberian air.

Ice skaters were out on frozen canals in the Netherlands, icebreakers had to clear Rotterdam port, and a rare snowfall on Thursday in southern France left Marseilles with 29cm (11.4in) of snow while Milan was swamped under snow 30cm (12in) deep. But the skiing in the Alps is superb, with cold conditions and fresh snowfalls leaving pistes in great shape.

At the other extreme, heat waves have struck Australia with temperatures soaring above 40C (104F) and a state of emergency declared near Sydney as wildfires took hold. In New Zealand, Christchurch nearly broke its highest temperature record of 35.9C (96.6F) on Thursday.

The rainy season across the Far East has left the Philippines deluged since Tuesday, setting off floods and landslides affecting 46,000 people.

South America is also experiencing a severe wet season, with heavy downpours lashing Peru and Brazil. But weeks of heavy rainfalls in Brazil’s southeastern region has benefited the coffee plantations, which are enjoying a bumper crop.

[erik]

The carbon cost of Googling

Climate researchers say two Google searches emit 7g of CO2 – the same as boiling an electric kettle. Do their numbers add up?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/ethicallivingblog/2009/jan/12/carbon-emissions-google

Can two Google searches really produce as much carbon dioxide as boiling enough water in an electric kettle for a cup of tea? That's what Alex Wissner-Gross, an environmental fellow at Harvard University, is claiming. "Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power," says Wissner-Gross in forthcoming research about the environmental impact of computing, which calculates that every Google search produces 7g of CO2. "Google are very efficient, but their primary concern is to make searches fast and that means they have a lot of extra capacity that burns energy."

It should probably be noted at this point that Wissner-Gross is also the co-founder of Enernetics, and its associated website www.CO2stats.com, which, according to the Boston Business Journal, allows "websites to get analysis of how energy-efficient they are and sells carbon offsets to help them reach a neutral status". So let's first congratulate Wissner-Gross on getting himself and his company talked about all over the internet, including here. But does his claim stack up?

Without any published data to hand it's hard to tell. All Google is saying is that it is takes the issue seriously, but that "the energy used per Google search is minimal". It adds: ""In the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query." (If this is true, it surely makes a mockery of Wissner-Gross's claims as there's no way an average computer uses as much power as an electric kettle when it's boiling water.)

So let's do some crude sums based on what we know and what is being claimed. Google receives millions of search queries every day from all over the world. Estimates vary about quite how many queries it receives, but they seem to range from 200m up to 500m. Let's, for the sake of argument, take the top figure as a worst-case scenario.

If Wissner-Gross is correct then 3,500 tonnes of CO2 (500m x 0.000007 tonnes) are emitted every day through all of us performing Google searches. Or put another way, 1.28m tonnes a year. That's about the same as Laos emits each year, the 151st biggest emitting country in the world.

I'm torn between thinking that this sounds like an awful lot – "Shock: Google emits as much as a country!" – or whether it doesn't sound too bad, given, for right or wrong, how integral Google now is to many of our lives. What is certain is that the environmental impact of information technology as a whole is considerable and ever rising.

A widely quoted figure is that the global ICT sector produces as much CO2 each year as the global aviation industry – about 2-3% of total global emissions. It is helpful, therefore, that Wissner-Gross's claim is at least providing a needed spur to debating the ICT sector's impact, and how best to reduce it.

Ultimately, though, I suspect this particularly quotable nugget will have little impact on the searching habits of internet users. Nor should it, really. We can each monitor how much electricity our own computers use – and aim to keep it at a minimum – but it can only ever be Google's responsibility about how much power its servers and related hardware use. Perhaps there's even an argument for saying that internet searches have helped to reduce net emissions by greatly reducing the need to make physical journeys in search of information, say, a trip to the local library or bookshop?

(NB: At least one cup of tea was consumed during the making of this blog.)

[erik]

It seems that there is a statistically reliable change of temperature to support the warming claim.

Scientists Refute Argument Of Climate Skeptics

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090109115047.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 10, 2009) — Scientists at the GKSS Research Centre of Geesthacht and the University of Bern have investigated the frequency of warmer than average years between 1880 and 2006 for the first time. The result: the observed increase of warm years after 1990 is not a statistical accident.


Global monthly and annual mean near-surface temperatures between 1850 and June 2008 in relation to the average temperature in the period between 1961 and 1990, based on the air temperature measurement data of weather stations. (Credit: HadCRUT)

Between 1880 and 2006 the average global annual temperature was about 15°C. However, in the years after 1990 the frequency of years when this average value was exceeded increased.

The GKSS Research Centre asks: is it an accident that the warmest 13 years were observed after 1990, or does this increased frequency indicate an external influence?

Calculating the likelihood

With the help of the so called "Monte-Carlo-Simulation“ the coastal researchers Dr. Eduardo Zorita and Professor Hans von Storch at the GKSS-Research Centre together with Professor Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern estimated that it is extremely unlikely that the frequency of warm record years after 1990 could be an accident and concluded that it is rather influenced by a external driver.

The fact that the 13 warmest years since 1880 could have occurred by accident after 1990 corresponds to a likelihood of no more than 1:10,000.

These likelihood can be illustrated by using the game of chance "heads or tails": the likelihood is the same as flipping a coin and getting 14 heads in a row.

Climate is more complicated than a game

"In order to understand and statistically analyse the climate system and its interaction between the ocean, land, atmosphere and human activity, the comparison with a game of chance is no longer sufficient.

The natural sequence of warm and cold years no longer functions according to the simple principle of 'zero or one,'" explains the GKSS scientist Dr. Eduardo Zorita about the challenges of his calculations, because the climate system possesses some inertia.

An example: After a warm year milder years tend to follow, since the oceans have stored some heat. This natural inertia must also be included in the calculations.

"Our study is pure statistical nature and can not attribute the increase of warm years to individual factors, but is in full agreement with the results of the IPCC that the increased emission of greenhouse gases is mainly responsible for the most recent global warming“, says Zorita in summary

[nichi]

Shocking cold wave drops temps to 40 below zero
   
By AMY FORLITI, Associated Press Writer Amy Forliti, Associated Press Writer – 4 mins ago

MINNEAPOLIS – Temperatures crashed to Arctic levels Tuesday as a severe cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing schools and making most people think twice before going outside. Thermometers read single digits early in the day as far south as Kansas and Missouri, where some areas warmed only into the teens by midday.

The ice and snow that glazed pavement was blamed for numerous traffic accidents from Minnesota to Indiana, where police said a truck overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp during the night in the Gary area.

Still, some Minnesotans took it as just another winter day, even in the state's extreme northwest corner where thermometers bottomed out at 38 degrees below zero at the town of Hallock and the National Weather Service said the wind chill was a shocking 58 below.

"It's really not so bad," Robert Cameron, 75, said as he and several friends gathered for morning coffee at the Cenex service station in Hallock. "We've got clothing that goes with the weather. ... We're ready and rolling, no matter what."

"It's so beautiful. There's not a cloud in the sky," said Keith Anderson, 66. But he said that's not stopping him from skipping town at the end of the week to spend a couple of months in Nevada and Arizona.

Outside, one of the station's gas pumps froze up at least once, and assistant manager Terrie Franks had to go out to apply deicer spray.

"You definitely have to have gloves on because touching the cold metal — your hands are frozen," Franks said by telephone.

The weather service warned that exposed flesh can freeze in 10 minutes when the wind chill is 40 degrees below zero or colder.

At about 8 a.m., temperatures were minus 40 in International Falls and minus 35 in Roseau. Farther south, Minneapolis hit 18 below zero with a wind chill of 32 below and black ice was blamed for numerous accidents.

In neighboring North Dakota, Grand Forks dropped to a record low of 37 below zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees off the old record set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.

Schools were closed because of the cold as far south as Iowa, and authorities in Grand Rapids, Mich., went out urging the homeless to seek shelter.

The leading edge of the cold air was expected to strike the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and South late Tuesday and Wednesday. And meteorologists warned that a second wave could drop temperatures into the single digits Thursday and Friday in the mid-Atlantic region.

The storm that blew through the upper Midwest on Monday dropped 6 inches of snow on Minot, N.D., on top of about a foot that fell late last week, and Bismarck collected 4 inches. Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks all broke snow records for December, each with more than 30 inches. They were outdone by Madison, Wis., which accumulated a record 40 inches for the month, the weather service said Tuesday.

Road departments have had little time to clear away the snow between storms.

"Four-wheel drives are useless — people are just snowed in," said Rhonda Woodhams, office manager for Williams County, N.D. "People are calling in saying they're out of milk and diapers for their kids, or they have doctor appointments they need to get to. We're doing our best. And we don't need no more snow."

"It's like a sea of whiteness; people can't see the road," said Rebecca Arndt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Mankato. "When the white fluffy stuff starts to blow, it is not pretty."

What was left of that snowstorm was blowing eastward along the Great Lakes, and the weather service posted winter storm warnings Tuesday for parts of Michigan, northern Indiana and Ohio's northwest corner. Up to 11 inches of new snow was possible in Detroit.

Winter weather advisories were in effect from North Dakota to Ohio and northeast into northern New England.