Best mess, bar none
That was one sticky mess that had to be cleaned up last week.
No, not the presidential election, the tanker accident on Interstate 390. The crash spread 45,000 pounds of slippery, liquid chocolate across I-390 before it started to solidify on the road's cold surface.
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The spill closed part of I-390 near Groveland for five hours as a road grader was used to scrape the northbound lanes of expressway.
The truck, from M&M Mars. Co. in Elizabethtown, Pa., carried the liquid used to make milk chocolate.
It smelled like a Hershey bar, said Groveland Fire Chief Lloyd Butler.
No rush on high-speed ferry's return to work
Don't expect the Spirit of Ontario to resume sailing this fall or winter. We pretty much agreed that this ferry isn't going to float again until next spring, Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson Jr. said last week.
Canadian American Transportation Systems, the private ferry company, needs to raise new capital, restructure its debt, increase revenue and reduce costs. In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle (published Wednesday) CATS founder Dominic Deluccia said he could not say when ferry service would resume, but: I think you're looking at the low point right now. The high point is yet to come.
The $42.5 million ferry started service to Toronto in June but lasted less than three months before shutting down without warning. It now sits idle in the Genesee River at the Port of Rochester.
This ferry isn't going to float again until next spring? Yikes! Does Hizzoner think the big boat is sinking?
Woo-hoo! A little more than half of under-30s voted!
In the presidential election just past more than 20 million Americans younger than 30 voted. That's the good news.
The not-so-good news: That number represented a 51.6 percent turnout for the age group, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at the University of Maryland.
That presumably means 48.4 percent of those younger than 30 were too apathetic to bother to register or to vote.
Here's an idea: Turn the elections into a giant online game in which the one guy you don't blow away is the one you've vote for. This at least would help in the young male category of nonvoters.
Will Sen. Hillary Clinton run for president in 2008?
The defeat of Sen. John Kerry has left New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as one of the most powerful elected officials in the national Democratic Party as well as the top prospect for the presidential nomination in 2008, according to party officials and strategists.
Many Democrats have been saying for months that a Kerry victory last week would have forced Clinton to put off any plans she had to run for president in 2008 because Kerry would, as the incumbent, be in a strong position to win the party's nomination for a second term.
Is there any substance to the speculation? If Clinton is seen duck hunting in a camouflage suit in Ohio it's a good bet.
Clinton Presidential Library offers limited authenticity
The Democrats didn't win the Oval Office, but they'll find a full-size replica at the Clinton Presidential Library, where final touches are being applied for the grand opening next week.
A crowd of 30,000 donors, reporters, celebrities and international dignitaries are expected on the 30-acre presidential park for the event.
We can only hope the authenticity of the Oval Office stops short of including White House interns in various compromising positions.
Airlines' heavy passengers weighing down planes
A government study out last week finds that airlines increasingly have to worry more about the weight of their passengers.
Heavier fliers have created higher fuel costs, according to the government study.
Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a result, airlines spent $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in 2000 and that was well before the recent spike in fuel prices.
Some airlines are fighting back. Southwest, for one, requires obese passengers to pay for two seats.
U.S.: Melting Arctic ice is good news ... for Big Oil
A thaw of the Arctic icecap is accelerating because of global warming.
A report released on Monday says the Arctic is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet because of a buildup of heat-trapping gases.
The report predicts that over the next 100 years, global warming could increase Arctic annual average temperatures up to 13 degrees over water. Warmer temperatures could raise global sea levels by as much as three feet.
Such a change would threaten coastal cities, change growing patterns for vegetation and destroy habitats for some wildlife.
The good news and irony (at least for oil companies): The rising global temperatures that the burning of fossil fuels has caused will make areas of the Arctic more accessible for oil and natural gas drilling.
So first humans burn too many carbon-based fuels, the planet warms up, ice melts and, hey, as a bonus, we'll be able to drill for more oil. Somehow another Ice Age seems more like divine justice.
Compiled by Mike Johansson who has fun reading the Democrat and Chronicle.
