Extreme cold weather? Here are things you can freeze...

Right now, Minnesota is blanketed is cold which the state hasn't seen since 1996. Relatively speaking, that's not too long for me (I was in high school at the time and earned a couple days off thanks to Governor Arne Carlson). Extreme cold (-20 to -30 F) does have some positives to it much like extreme heat does. Just think of all the cool stuff you can freeze.

News reporters have done it all. They throw a hot cup of water up into the air and the cameraman catches the image of the water turning to vapor or snowflakes as it quickly falls to the ground. But the fun doesn't stop there. Below are a few things you can freeze just to see what happens.

1.) Bananas
20 minutes out in the cold air tomorrow should* solidly freeze a banana so you can use it as a hammer to pound in a few nails until it either thaws or shatters. I'll get back to you tomorrow on what happens.

2.) Egg
Again, about 20 minutes outside should* be long enough to freeze a regular old Grade A Large egg solid. Quickly take it inside and peel off the shell and watch the amazement (or horror) in the eyes of your children as they see what an egg looks like beneath its shell.

3.) Blueberries
It will* only take a mere five minutes to freeze a few blueberries as solid as bee-bees. Do what you will with them after they are frozen.

4.) Soda
Ten minutes will* freeze a can of soda and twenty minutes in these Siberian temperatures will straight up explode the can leaving behind a cylinder of frozen high fructose corn syrup surrounded by a pile of aluminum shrapnel (or not).

5.) Balloon
Blow up a regular old latex balloon, tie it off and secure it to something to prevent it from blowing away. Put it outside and watch it implode in a few minutes. Honestly, this one works.

6.) Bubbles
Grab your child's bubble wand, dip it in some warm bubble solution and duck outside quickly to blow a bubble or five. Try to catch one and watch it nearly instantly freeze into a tiny, clear orb and have fun letting it shatter.

Don't, though, plan on doing all six of these kick-ass experiments in one shot because you'll die outside in six minutes (actually frostbite occurs in around five minutes with Monday's predicted windchills). We live here for some reason so have some fun with these hellish temperatures.

*Never trust what you read on the internet but trying to freeze crap in this weather can make it at least tolerable.

This is why religion sucks

Religion, at its core, is an excellent form of community building and a fine place to gather and meet those in your community. It can give a sense of place -- especially in this hurried, hectic and generally fucked-up world. Then shit like this happens.

President Obama was invited by Notre Dame University - a Catholic university - to speak at their commencement ceremony later this month. Then today the bishop of the Winona (Minnesota) diocese berates both President Obama's policies and the choice of the officials at Notre Dame University. The Catholic church's hang-ups are the President's lifting of the ban on stem cell research and his pro-choice stance on the topic of abortion. In the eyes of hte Catholic church, pro-choice on the abortion topic means pregnant women having abortions because their mood changed on day. Sadly for the Catholic church, I have never met a woman who would make a choice like this on a whim. The majority of women, even if the pregnancy posed a risk to her own health and life, would endlessly agonize over a decision like that. A pro-choice stance coming from the President simply means that in those cases where abortion is the last choice for a pregnant woman, it will be done safely by someone who is medically trained. Not by someone in the back of a Chevy cargo van with a rusty pliers.

As for the stem cell debate, the stem cells in question come from fetuses who weren't used in the pregnancy procedures they were originally created for and would otherwise be medical waste. If you really want the argument dumbed down, scientists are acting like the area recycling truck in using something destined for a medical waste incinerator to potentially cure previously incurable diseases.

If the Catholic church - the church which I am a member of - wants to preach unity and spread their bullshit message of tolerance and acceptance they need to realize that their very denouncement of President's Obama's stance on abortion and stem cell research is further dividing the country at a time when such trivial issues aren't really an issue at all. It's time for the Catholic church to get off their high horse and realize that their cherry-picked issue of the week would play far better in the 15th century. Of course, what should I expect from a religion who still treats females as second class citizens by requiring nuns to take a vow of poverty while male priests are paid a living wage and receive retirement benefits after their careers in the priesthood ends? Then there's their intolerance of homosexuality. Days like this are when I truly question the entirety of the Catholic religion.

For a less divisive time, check out the stellar photos featured at MinnPics. They will bring a smile to your face.

Hey, let's just bury the carbon

Burning coal is dirty business. It's so dirty that our government has decided to invest nearly $100 million in a project to bury carbon.

But carbon is a gas, right?

Yep. But the plan is to pump the sequestered gas far under the surface of the Earth under multiple layers of stone and such. All for the initial price of $84 million for one well about a mile deep.

If it sounds like a rip-off, it's because it is. The cost for one "well" is insane.

It's also rather short-sighted. It's like burying your garbage in your backyard because if it's out of sight, it's out of mind, right?

Well, the problem with carbon, as I understand it, is that it rises. It sounds perfectly fine to bury a few million cubic feet of carbon below where we live but who can guarantee that it will stay in one place? Carbon isn't exactly a roll of quarters. If these short-sighted jackasses weren't aware, gasses have a tendency to move.

Hell, read the article and ask yourself if the plan to bury our waste sounds good. To me it sounds too much like making the planet more of a landfill than it already is.

MinnPics focuses on the good around us. Great photos captured by great photographers in a great state. All Minnesota, all the time! Check it out today!

A question to ponder

Knowing that Earth is a sphere (round), why don't you have a rush of blood to the head as you venture further into the southern hemisphere? I know that gravity holds us to the planet but what about being upside down? Hopefully some wise scientific mind can answer this for me or someone can pretend to be wise and answer this very serious question.