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In our latest poll, we ask you if, compared to 5 years ago, your local weather is much more or somewhat more violent and changeable, about the same, or more stable. Instead of just listening to the scientists and the government, we want to find out if global warming is happening to you!

In our last poll, we asked you if the U.S. should re-institute the draft. Almost all of you (79%) said “No.” 15% said, “Yes, immediately,” and 6% said, “Only if we experience a general uprising in Iraq.”

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The five western lowland gorillas in the Dallas Zoo are being kept away from the public, since one escaped on March 18 and injured three people before being killed by police. The remaining gorillas are stressed from being kept indoors, and zoo officials are trying to ease this with television. The gorillas each have their favorite shows.

The Dallas Morning News reports that fourteen-year-old Patrick likes cartoons, public television, and National Geographic specials, but sports bore him. Keeper Cindy McCaleb says, “We tried to put on sports, even though we were concerned it might generate aggressive behavior, but he really wasn’t interested.”
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A skin infection that is resistant to all but the most powerful antibiotics and can be passed by touch has moved from New York City hospitals out into the streets. Dr. Howard Grossman says, “Usually with infections you need a break in the skin to pass it. Not with this. It gets through unbroken skin with casual contact.”

Sam Smith writes in the New York Post that it can cause abscesses, tissue loss, amputation or even death in severe cases. Doctors at some clinics are seeing one new case a week, compared to one every two months a year ago. Dr. Dawn Harbatkin says, “This is something we should be concerned about.”
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An 7.9 earthquake in Alaska in 2002 set off 200 smaller earthquakes 2,000 miles away in Yellowstone National Park. Now scientists have discovered that it also changed the schedule of some of Yellowstone’s geysers and hot springs, which are near where most of the quakes occurred.

Seismologist Robert B. Smith says, “We did not expect to see these prolonged changes in the hydrothermal system? Several small hot springs, not known to have geysered before, suddenly surged into a heavy boil with eruptions as high as [39 inches]. The temperature at one of these springs increased rapidly from [about 108 to 199 degrees Fahrenheit] and became much less acidic than normal. In the same area, another hot spring that was usually clear showed muddy, turbid water.”
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