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facts & arguments

Wine country to move?

"Bid adieu to Bordeaux, but also, quite possibly, a hello to Château Yellowstone," says The Guardian. "Researchers predict a two-thirds fall in production in the world's premier wine regions because of climate change. The study forecasts sharp declines in wine production from Bordeaux and Rhone regions in France, Tuscany in Italy and Napa Valley in California and Chile by 2050, as a warming climate makes it harder to grow grapes in traditional wine country. But also anticipate a big push into areas once considered unsuitable. That could mean more grape varieties from northern Europe, including Britain, the U.S. Northwest and the hills of central China." Researchers expect big changes in regions enjoying the cool winters and hot dry summers that produce good grapes. Wine grapes are one of the most finicky of crops, sensitive to subtle shifts in temperature, rain and sunshine.

Death on the roads

Each year, 1.3 million people die in car accidents, and 10 countries are responsible for nearly half of these deaths, says The Washington Post. Over all, India is responsible for the highest number of road deaths, followed by China and the United States. Meanwhile, Eritrea is home to the highest concentration of road deaths (48.4 per 100,000 people), followed by the Cook Islands, Egypt and Libya, according to the World Health Organization. WHO also estimates that road traffic fatalities will be the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.

Wine country to move?

"Bid adieu to Bordeaux, but also, quite possibly, a hello to Château Yellowstone," says The Guardian. "Researchers predict a two-thirds fall in production in the world's premier wine regions because of climate change. The study forecasts sharp declines in wine production from Bordeaux and Rhone regions in France, Tuscany in Italy and Napa Valley in California and Chile by 2050, as a warming climate makes it harder to grow grapes in traditional wine country. But also anticipate a big push into areas once considered unsuitable. That could mean more grape varieties from northern Europe, including Britain, the U.S. Northwest and the hills of central China." Researchers expect big changes in regions enjoying the cool winters and hot dry summers that produce good grapes. Wine grapes are one of the most finicky of crops, sensitive to subtle shifts in temperature, rain and sunshine.

When humans are gone

The Korean peninsula's Demilitarized Zone is 250 kilometres long and four kilometres wide. "Aside from rare military patrols or desperate souls fleeing North Korea, humans have barely set foot in the strip since 1953," says Discover magazine. "Before that, for 5,000 years, the area was populated by rice farmers who carved the land into paddies. Today, those paddies have become barely discernible, transformed into pockets of marsh, and the new occupants of these lands arrive as dazzling white squadrons of red-crowned cranes that glide over the bulrushes in perfect formation, touching down so lightly that they detonate no land mines. Next to whooping cranes, they are the rarest such birds on Earth. They winter in the DMZ alongside the endangered white-naped cranes, revered in Asia as sacred portents of peace."

Divorce request denied

Police have cited a 42-year-old Pennsylvania woman for disorderly conduct after she called 911 requesting a divorce and police assistance to make her husband leave, says Associated Press. Troopers say they explained to the woman, whom they are not identifying, that a divorce is a civil matter and that they could not make her husband leave the residence because no crime had been committed. Instead, they cited the woman for disorderly conduct and misusing the Erie County 911 system.

A cry for help

Police officers in Tennessee rushed out after a 911 call alerted them to a "man screaming for help" – only to find a lonely goat, reports Orange Co. U.K. A woman alerted police after arriving home in Putnam County and hearing what she thought were screams. Police found a goat, which had been tied to a post, bleating at the top of its lungs. Carlos Mendez, the owner, said: "He's used to being with the other goats and we separated him. I guess he didn't want to be alone." Putnam County chief deputy Jacky Farley said that even the officers responding to the call thought the goat sounded like a human being.

Thought du jour

If individuality has no play, society does not advance;

if individuality breaks out

of all bounds, society perishes.

Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (1825-95)

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