If you thought food prices were out of control in your hometown, try grocery shopping in the North of Canada.
Record high inflation is sending food prices soaring to new heights in Canada’s northernmost communities, prompting local hunters and fishermen to take drastic steps to address the growing need.
There are no roads or rail lines into Nunavut; goods can only reach communities by air or – when the Arctic Ocean thaws – by sea, resulting in significant fuel costs and subsequent sticker shock at local grocery stores.
Visitors find some items being sold for two or even three times the national average. A 10-pound bag of potatoes costs about $15; it’s almost $22 for a kilogram of ground beef; and a four-litre jug of milk costs more than $8 — that’s $2 more than the national average.
Hunters and fisherman have joined forces to supply local food banks, not just extended families. Food banks in Nunavut are seeing record high needs, double previous years. But they are also using research boats to find new fishing grounds and increase catches.
The “Deflategate” scandal involved the New England Patriots of the NFL. It was alleged that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady oversaw or ordered the intentional (and illegal) deflation of the team’s footballs for use in the 2014 AFC Championship Game. After a lengthy investigation of the incident by the league, Brady was suspended for four games, and the Patriots were stripped of two draft choices.
2014 was the first full year of President Barack Obama’s second term in office. A recent question in the SDMB Polls Only thread revealed that Obama is Dopers’ second-favorite former POTUS, behind Jimmy Carter.
In response to the looming energy crisis, Jimmy Carter held a televised fireside chat, sitting in a wooden chair and wearing a cardigan sweater, imploring the nation to turn their thermostats down and put on a sweater if they were cold.
Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the USA, today is 98 years old. On 01 October he would become 99 years old. Today he has chosen hospice care at home to live out his remaining days surrounded by family.
Carter is the longest-lived American President. He had been in and out of the hospital for short stays recently, and the Carter Center said today that he “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.”
The second longest-lived American president was George HW Bush, who lived to be 94 years, 171 days.
Five Presidents have lived into their 90s:
98 years, 141 days — #39, Jimmy Carter (living)
94 years, 171 days — #41, George HW Bush
93 years, 165 days — #38, Gerald Ford
93 years, 120 days — #40, Ronald Reagan
90 years, 247 days — #2, John Adams
90 years, 71 days — #31, Herbert Hoover
It’s interesting that this list includes four in a row, #38, #39, #40, and #41.
Though his time as President was rocky, Jimmy Carter has continued to serve his country in an exemplary fashion.
And speaking of Presidents: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day: July 4, 1826. At the age of 90, Adams lay on his deathbed while the country celebrated Independence Day. His last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” He was mistaken: Jefferson had died five hours earlier at Monticello at the age of 83.
American actor Ken Howard starred on Broadway, playing Thomas Jefferson in the musical 1776 (a role he reprised in the film adaptation), and won a Tony Award in the drama Child’s Play. He later portrayed high school basketball coach Ken Reeves in the television series The White Shadow.
Howard was married three times; his second wife was Margo Howard, the daughter of advice columnist Eppie Lederer (a.k.a. Ann Landers).
The first Ann Landers column written by Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer appeared in the Chicago Sun Times on October 16, 1955. The advice column had first appeared in 1943, written by Ruth Crowley.
The first Dear Abby column, begun and written by Pauline Phillips, appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 9, 1956.
Lederer and Phillips were twin sisters, born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa.
Edward Gary Air Force Base, later called Camp Gary, was redeveloped into the San Marcos Municipal Airport near San Marcos TX. It was in use 1943–1948, and 1951–1963. At one point it was named San Marcos Air Force Base and was the largest helicopter and Liaison training facility in the United States.
The base was named after 2ndLt Arthur Edward Gary who was born in San Marcos TX and was killed in action at Clark Field in the Philippines on 07 December 1941 when Japanese bombers attacked Clark Field in the Philippines on that day.
Edwards Air Force Base is a USAF installation in southern California. Established in the 1930s as Muroc Field, the facility was renamed several times before its final renaming in 1950 for World War II USAAF veteran and test pilot Capt. Glen Edwards. Edwards is the home of the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Test Pilot School, and NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center. It also administers Area 51.
What we know about Area 51:
Area 51 is a U.S. Air Force military installation located at Groom Lake in southern Nevada.
Area 51 is an active military installation. It is administered by Edwards Air Force Base in southern California.
Area 51 is not accessible to the public and is under 24-hour surveillance.
The only confirmed use of the installation is as a flight-testing facility.
During World War II (1939–45) the U.S. Army Air Corps used the site as an aerial gunnery range.
In 1955 the area was selected by the Central Intelligence Agency, a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–61) authorized the testing, which was to be conducted under the code name Project AQUATONE. Testing began in July 1955.
After the U-2 was put into service in 1956, Area 51 was used to develop other aircraft, including the A-12 (also known as OXCART) reconnaissance plane and the stealth fighter F-117 Nighthawk.
In 1989 a man named Robert (“Bob”) Lazar claimed he worked on extraterrestrial technology inside Area 51. Lazar told Las Vegas television reporter George Knapp that he saw autopsy photographs of aliens inside the facility and that the U.S. government used the facility to examine recovered alien spacecraft. Although Lazar himself was discredited, his claims spawned numerous government conspiracy theories, most of which involved extraterrestrial life.
Many people have reported seeing unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in or near Area 51. (Although the term is often used in the context of extraterrestrial speculation, UFOs are not necessarily extraterrestrial in origin.)
On June 25, 2013, the CIA approved for release declassified documents chronicling the history of the U-2 and OXCART programs. The documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted in 2005 by American intelligence historian Jeffrey T. Richelson of the George Washington University National Security Archive. The release of the documents marked the first time that the U.S. government formally acknowledged the existence of Area 51.
According to the CIA, test flights of the U-2 and subsequent military aircraft account for the UFO sightings in the area.
Area 51 employees reach the facility by way of airplane. They fly in and out of a restricted terminal at McCarran International Airport on one of several unmarked planes permitted to fly through the airspace above Area 51 (airspace R-4808N).
Until recently, satellite imagery of the installation was censored. As of 2018, Area 51 is visible on Google Maps.
The rock band which evolved into U2 began in 1976, and was formed by a group of students at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, a secondary school in Dublin, Ireland. The band played under the name “Feedback,” and later “The Hype.”
In March of 1978, they changed their name again, selecting “U2” from a list generated by their friend, graphic artist Steve Averill; it is said that the band chose the name because they liked the ambiguity of it, as well as it being the name which they disliked the least.
Neither the President nor the Vice President of the United States in 1976, Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller, were elected by the people to their posts. Both were appointed VP under the terms of the 25th Amendment; Ford then took the top job upon the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
Nelson Rockefeller unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1960 (won by Richard Nixon), 1964 (Barry Goldwater), and 1968 (Richard Nixon).
Science fiction writer Joe Haldeman wrote in his Worlds trilogy that there had been a President of the United States named Rockefeller at some time after 1977.
Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings between 48th St and 51 St in Midtown, Manhattan (NY). In 1928, the site’s then-owner, Columbia University, leased the land to John D. Rockefeller Jr., who was the main person behind the complex’s construction. Originally envisioned as the site for a new Metropolitan Opera building, the current Rockefeller Center came about after the Met could not afford to move to the proposed new building. Described as one of the greatest projects of the Great Depression era, Rockefeller Center became a New York City designated landmark in 1985 and a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
