The Sound of Science – ‘Thundersnow’

Science and Health

Jasmine: My name is Jasmine.Chrissy: And l’m Chrissy.Jasmine: We’re from NIU STEAM and…Chrissy: This is The Sound of Science on WNIJ.Jasmine: Kristin from Genoa would like to know, “What is thundersnow, and why does it happen?”Chrissy: If you’ve seen lightning during a snowstorm, you’re pretty lucky, but if you’ve heard thunder as well – that should have been the day you played those lottery numbers that you keep in the back of your head!Jasmine: Thundersnow is a rare weather phenomenon that occurs when a thunderstorm produces snow instead of rain. The lightning and thunder are often accompanied by heavy snowfall, strong winds, and blizzard like conditions. It is most observed in regions with cold climates, such as the northern United States and Canada.Chrissy: Thundersnow occurs when there is an unstable atmosphere with strong upward motion of air, combined with cold temperatures near the ground.Jasmine: The strong updrafts and downdrafts within the storm create a separation of positive and negative charges, leading to the discharge of electricity in the form of lightning.Chrissy: Thundersnow storms are rare because they require specific atmospheric conditions. These conditions are seen far more often in the summer than in the winter. Though there is always thunder after lightning, it can only be heard within a few miles of the storm because snow is a sound insulator. The National Weather Service estimates there are only 6.3 thundersnow events per year.Jasmine: This was The Sound of Science on WNIJ where you learn something new every day.

3 books to make you feel hopeful The Next Chapter columnist and CBC Books senior producer Ryan B. Patrick reviews Great Expectations by Vinson Cunningham, The Capital of Dreams by Heather O’Neill and Unearthing by Kyo Maclear. Radio -The Next Chapter…

Arts & Culture, Books

The Next Chapter10:47Bringing hope into the New Year with Ryan B. PatrickThe senior producer for CBC Books joins The Next Chapter to recommend some hopeful books to inspire us in 2025.It’s a brand new year and this time of year is usually full of promise and good intentions. But with global unrest of various kinds — wars, environmental degradation and divisive politics — it can be hard to find hope. What are we supposed to read in times like these? The Next Chapter columnist and CBC Books senior producer Ryan B. Patrick dropped by to recommend three titles that at least point us towards hope.Great Expectations by Vinson CunninghamGreat Expectations is a novel by Vinson Cunningham.

Rumaan Alam’s latest novel steps into a world of wealth — and questions who’s entitled to it The American author discussed his latest book, Entitlement, on Bookends with Mattea Roach. Books -Bookends |20 minutes ago

Arts & Culture, Books

Bookends with Mattea Roach34:51Rumaan Alam: How would you spend a billion dollars?Rumaan Alam’s latest novel, Entitlement, is about a young woman hired to help an aging billionaire give away his fortune — and it asks a lot of questions about the cash-driven world we live in. Rumaan joins Mattea Roach to talk about wealth, morality and how much money a billion dollars really is.How would you spend an inconceivable amount of money? That’s one of the questions Rumaan Alam explores in his latest novel, Entitlement.Entitlement tells the story of Brooke, a woman in her thirties who gets a new job helping an elderly billionaire who wants to give away large parts of his fortune before he dies. This proximity to wealth is dizzying and intoxicating — yet it pushes Brooke closer and closer to sliding into madness. “Entitlement explores the influence of money: who has it, who needs it, and how it shapes thinking around class privilege and power,” said Mattea Roach in the introduction to their conversation with Alam on Bookends.”Entitlement asks a lot of questions while challenging readers to come up with their own answers.”Alam is the Brooklyn author of the novel Leave the World Behind, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and was adapted into a major movie. His other books include novels Rich and Pretty and That Kind of Mother and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker.He joined Roach to discuss the meaning behind his book’s title, why his protagonist feels so untethered and the secret wealth that nobody talks about.Mattea Roach: I want to start by asking about the title of this new book, Entitlement, which I think is also really the theme of the novel in many respects. It certainly makes a statement, and there are multiple ways you could interpret the title. I’m wondering what inspired this title and what inspired you to write this book at this moment?  Rumaan Alam: The title of this novel was extremely hard to arrive at. Actually, I had the whole novel written before I sort of landed on Entitlement as kind of the single word that was able to distill what the book is talking about. What I like about it as a title though, is the word’s elasticity. Entitlement sounds one way to the reader. It sounds like the novel is going to engage in a conversation that I think is one we’re having in a lot of corners of the culture right now about privilege and about the attitude of the individual. Entitlement in the West, though, also has this other connotation of social welfare. Welfare programs, state welfare programs are often sort of talked about in policy language as entitlement programs, which I think is so interesting because it is as though the state is acknowledging there is a human entitlement to shelter and food, for example.But those entitlements to shelter and food are not actually enshrined in law. All you need to do is visit any major metropolitan area in which houses cost about $1 million. You will see people, citizens of that state, who are not availed of the human entitlement to shelter, let alone food.Entitlement has this kind of funny breadth where it seems like it’s talking about the individual attitude, but it’s also talking about something bigger. That is what I liked about it. And it feels a bit like a litmus test to me for the reader.  MR: I want to talk about the main character of Entitlement, Brooke. She’s a Black woman in her 30s who seems lost in life. She doesn’t really have a vocation in her career. She’s had a privileged upbringing, but privileged in the sense that she can’t just not work and skate off of her parents wealth. Who is she at the start of the book? RA: Even in your introduction or to this person you pointed out that she’s lost hold of a sense of self because she doesn’t have a fixed vocation, which is so interesting to me because in so much of contemporary life, the identity is so closely associated with the profession.You are what you do. If you don’t do, then who are you? That is part of Brooke’s problem. She’s had a kind of abortive career working as an educator. She has great privilege in the way that I have great privilege. She’s educated, she has her health. She’s a solidly middle-class person. It’s not the kind of cartoonish wealth that would allow her an adulthood of being a dilettante. She can’t just collect art and go shopping all day. She has to have a profession.  You are what you do. If you don’t do, then who are you?- Rumaan AlamIn part, it’s because of the imperatives of money, right? You have to have a job to pay your rent. But in part, it’s because you need to have a sense of who you are and that is how you define who you are in our culture —  by what you do.That eludes Brooke and that creates the conditions in which she realizes, over the course of the book, how little she understands precisely who she is. MR: I’m wondering where this fascination with these secret layers of money, the idea that a lot of people have wealth that isn’t always apparent, comes from and whether that’s maybe tied to some of these experiences living in New York and kind of having this outsider’s view almost when you first arrived. RA: It probably is a kind of narrow personal interest: my attention or awareness of money and its stealth power in the lives of people who are my peers. But this is extant, I think, in so much of life. You’re part of a community and you sort of think of all members of that community as being like you.You go to your kid’s friend’s birthday party and you can tell by going into the home that this family has a lot more money than you. Or can tell by going into the home that the family has old money, which is also a different kind of meaning and a different kind of power.  We understand what it means when we see it and yet we know it is not to be said.- Rumaan AlamI don’t know why I’m interested in that, but I think it’s so counter to the American mythology of all of us being created equally. It’s impolite to talk about. I’m interested in that. I’m interested in the ways in which it’s impolite to acknowledge the function of money in our own lives and in the lives of our peers.And yet we become attuned to reading it. We understand what it means when we see it and yet we know it is not to be said. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. It was produced by Ryan B. Patrick.

Business Plan Formulated to Achieve Break-Even for Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation 

Business News

Federal Minister for Finance Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCoSOEs) at the Finance Division today.  The committee reviewed separate business plans submitted by the Ministry of Information for addressing key operational challenges and outlining roadmaps for sustainable development, including organizational growth, financial sustainability and improved services, for Pakistan…

Owensboro tourism forecast looks good for 2025

Travel

“The outlook for 2025 remains robust,” Mark Calitri, president of the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in an article posted by the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. “Elevated room rates and strategic event planning promise a positive trend, despite some uncertainties.”
Churchill Downs’ $100 million Owensboro Racing & Gaming facility, 460 Wrights Landing Road, is slated to open in February, he said.
And the 144-room Home2 Suites hotel across Second Street from the Owensboro Convention Center is expected to open next year.
Calitri said, both “promise to elevate Owensboro’s appeal to visitors.”
With the new hotel, he said Owensboro will have 1,489 rooms.
That’s almost back to the 1,565 the city had in 2002 when the old Executive Inn was at its peak.

He said that the Owensboro Convention Center “has reported strong bookings for 2025, promising a steady stream of business.”

Outdoor sports, Calitri said, are “a significant contribution to occupancy rates. It continues to thrive, bolstering weekend and seasonal stays.”
But, he said, outdoor sports are filling fewer hotel rooms than in the past.
“While the number of dates booked is strong, the number of teams has decreased and how far people are willing to travel has changed,” Calitri said.
He said corporate travel is growing.
Calitri said, “We have secured some key group travel conferences that will introduce Owensboro as a new destination for bus tours.”

The local hospitality industry struggled during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Local hotels saw occupancy rates slip to 36.9% in 2020.

But it’s made a strong comeback in the years since with a record-setting hotel occupancy of 59% in 2022 and 2023. The state estimates that tourists spent $250 million in Daviess County last year.
Of that, $31.9 million was spent at local hotels — a new record and $1 million above the 2022 mark, according to Smith Travel Research, a national company that tracks such data around the world.
January will see “several high-profile events, including the prestigious All A Boys and Girls Basketball Tournament, as well as the Kentucky Cattlemen conference and USA Archery,” he said.
September, Calitri said, may “set occupancy records with the combination of the returning Special Olympics softball state championships and new groups including Defenders Law Rally, Glidden Auto National Conference, Kentucky Ambulance Association, Kentucky League of Cities, and Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors.
He said, “The primary uncertainty for 2025 lies in the addition of a new downtown hotel, which could introduce competitive pressures and potential disruptions.”
People aren’t booking rooms as early as they used to.
Calitri said, “The booking window for hotels continues to shrink, making it harder to project occupancies. This is a national trend that we will need to follow closely.”

More Kentucky business news here.

Owensboro tourism forecast looks good for 2025

Travel

“The outlook for 2025 remains robust,” Mark Calitri, president of the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said in an article posted by the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp. “Elevated room rates and strategic event planning promise a positive trend, despite some uncertainties.”
Churchill Downs’ $100 million Owensboro Racing & Gaming facility, 460 Wrights Landing Road, is slated to open in February, he said.
And the 144-room Home2 Suites hotel across Second Street from the Owensboro Convention Center is expected to open next year.
Calitri said, both “promise to elevate Owensboro’s appeal to visitors.”
With the new hotel, he said Owensboro will have 1,489 rooms.
That’s almost back to the 1,565 the city had in 2002 when the old Executive Inn was at its peak.

He said that the Owensboro Convention Center “has reported strong bookings for 2025, promising a steady stream of business.”

Outdoor sports, Calitri said, are “a significant contribution to occupancy rates. It continues to thrive, bolstering weekend and seasonal stays.”
But, he said, outdoor sports are filling fewer hotel rooms than in the past.
“While the number of dates booked is strong, the number of teams has decreased and how far people are willing to travel has changed,” Calitri said.
He said corporate travel is growing.
Calitri said, “We have secured some key group travel conferences that will introduce Owensboro as a new destination for bus tours.”

The local hospitality industry struggled during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Local hotels saw occupancy rates slip to 36.9% in 2020.

But it’s made a strong comeback in the years since with a record-setting hotel occupancy of 59% in 2022 and 2023. The state estimates that tourists spent $250 million in Daviess County last year.
Of that, $31.9 million was spent at local hotels — a new record and $1 million above the 2022 mark, according to Smith Travel Research, a national company that tracks such data around the world.
January will see “several high-profile events, including the prestigious All A Boys and Girls Basketball Tournament, as well as the Kentucky Cattlemen conference and USA Archery,” he said.
September, Calitri said, may “set occupancy records with the combination of the returning Special Olympics softball state championships and new groups including Defenders Law Rally, Glidden Auto National Conference, Kentucky Ambulance Association, Kentucky League of Cities, and Kentucky Association of Professional Surveyors.
He said, “The primary uncertainty for 2025 lies in the addition of a new downtown hotel, which could introduce competitive pressures and potential disruptions.”
People aren’t booking rooms as early as they used to.
Calitri said, “The booking window for hotels continues to shrink, making it harder to project occupancies. This is a national trend that we will need to follow closely.”

More Kentucky business news here.

Tourist arrivals break 4 mln mark

Travel

Tourist arrivals broke the 4 mln mark last year, up from the previous record set in 2019, with the number of holidaymakers choosing Cyprus for their vacation rising by 5.1% to 4,040,200, from 3,845,652 the previous year.
The island’s transport minister said last month that 2024 was set to see a record 12 mln passengers traveling through the island’s main airports of Larnaca and Paphos.
Income from tourism is also set to record a new high, with the government’s monthly Passengers Survey showing that for the January-October period, revenue from tourism is estimated at €2.983,8 bln compared to €2.802,6 bln in the same period of 2023, an increase of 6.5%.
Cyprus welcomed a record 3.97 million tourists in 2019, smashing the previous record set in 2018 by a slender 1%. Against the odds, Cyprus recovered from airline closures and the collapse of UK tour giant Thomas Cook and increased competition from traditional competitors Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey.
After crashing in the aftermath of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Cyprus tourism industry steadily picked up from 2021 onwards, despite isolation issues, social distancing and strict measures in hotels and restaurants. By 2021, total arrivals were at 75% of the pre-covid record.
According to data from the statistical service Cystat, tourist arrivals in December last year increased for the eighth month in a row and rose to 133,063, up 7.6% year on year.
With the exception of a dip in January and April, 2024 saw an increase in tourist arrivals in the remaining ten months of the year.
Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the main source of tourism for December 2024 with a share of 23.7% (31,501 tourists), followed by Israel with 17.4% (23,168), Poland with 9.4% (12,473), Greece with 9.0% (11,969) and Germany at 5.7% of all arrivals, or 7,535.
Cystat said that for of 49.6% of tourists, the purpose of their trip in December 2024 was holidays, for 37.5% it was to visit friends and relatives and 12.7% declared business.
Returns of Residents of Cyprus 
A total 168,022 residents of Cyprus returned from a trip abroad in December 2024 compared to 153,736 in the corresponding month last year, an increase of 9.3%.
Cyprus residents mainly returned from Greece with a share of 31.2% (52,344), the U.K. with 13.7% (22,995), and Poland with 5.3% (8,956). For 65.7%, the purpose of travel was holidays, business (16.3%), studies (17.6%) and ‘other’ (0.4%).