Colorado cornucopia (almost forgot the)!

A benefit concert yesterday for Colorado ranchers nailed by this winter's blizzards:

Pueblo - Sitting with their hands entwined, Eddie and Joyce Ming could finally enjoy their 44th wedding anniversary as Michael Martin Murphey's soft country voice echoed through the Colorado State Fair Events Center on Sunday.

Winter blizzards buried their 133-acre farm near Pritchett, and the past 10 weeks have been spent digging out their home and cattle.

"We've been a little barnbound, we like to say," Eddie Ming said.

Tough folks. I'd be hanging from a beam in that barn by now. Wouldn't be suicide, neither. (Remember that if it happens.)

There's a fine "Old West" sort of name, by the way: Ming.

Eternal truth in the headline of a News Speakout column: "Deadly organic spinach." Interesting piece, too:

Organic food activists are being served a heaping platter of organic crow [I said interesting, not well-written--ed.] now that we finally learn last fall's outbreak of deadly E. coli O157:H7 was caused by organically grown spinach.

On Tuesday (February 27th), California food regulators admitted under direct questioning at a state senate hearing that the tainted spinach that ultimately killed 3 and sickened over 200 was traced to a 50-acre organic field - contrary to the repeated denials of organic activists.

Calls to inorganic activists were not returned.

Man with Alzheimers found in San Diego.

To which the Taranto-esqe reply must be: there's only one guy with Alzheimers in San Diego?

I know I saw this on Law and Order:

Prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against Castle Rock Middle School students who took nude photos of themselves and each other using cell phones and distributed the images - some online - to their classmates this month.

More eternal truth (if can you stand it) in a story about how Dixie the avalanche rescue dog finds people buried in the snow:

"'We all smell more than we think' [ski patroller Brent] Redden said."

Finally, this gem of lesliegorebal warming hysteria from the Post:

It's not just about hungry polar bears.

Can't leave the fuddin' polar bears out of it even once, can they?

If Arctic sea ice continues to shrink in coming decades, Colorado could see less rain and snow and may suffer more frequent droughts, said Mark Serreze of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado.That's because changes in the extent of Arctic sea ice can alter weather patterns across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

Some climate simulations indicate that continued ice loss could lead to increased precipitation in western and southern Europe, while the American West could get shortchanged.

"Now whether this is exactly what will occur, we're not sure," he said. "But the real take-home message here is that what happens up there can affect us down here."

That's the "post-normal" take-home message, you understand.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center tracks the annual swelling and shrinking of the floating shell of sea ice that blankets the top of the world . . . .

The summertime extent of the polar ice layer has been declining since the late 1970s, with especially steep drops over the past five years.

If the trend continues, one computer simulation suggests that the Arctic could become nearly ice-free in September between 2040 and 2050.

The losses are shrinking the habitat available to polar bears, who hunt from the ice. But as Serreze and his colleagues point out, other changes could be in store thousands of miles away.

Exit bears, stage left.

The ongoing sea-ice decline could reduce the severity of Arctic cold fronts dropping into Colorado, reducing snowfall and impacting mountain snowpacks, the ski industry and the winter wheat crop, he said.

Unbelievable. Literally!