6B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THuRSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2020
COFFEE BREAK
Man’s internet addiction makes woman a social media widow
DEAR ABBY: I realize that
social media is a big part of
today’s world, and I have no
problem with someone using it to
stay in contact with family and
friends. But at what
point is it deemed
an addiction?
My signifi-
cant other spends
hours every day
scrolling through his Face-
book and Twitter pages. I have
tried discussing it with him, but
it becomes an argument. Now
I just sit in the same room with
him, silent and waiting until it’s
my turn for his attention. How
can I get him to realize how iso-
lated it makes me feel and that
my presence doesn’t seem to be
needed? Should I just accept that
he’s an addict and move on?
— OFFLINE IN FLORIDA
DEAR OFFLINE: Some-
thing becomes an addiction when
it causes a disruption in one’s
life. Your signif-
icant other isn’t
DEAR
the first person to
have been seduced
ABBY
by the internet. He
may argue with you
because he doesn’t realize the
amount of time he spends glued to
his screen.
Try this: Quietly clock the
time he’s on FB and Twitter for
one week. Afterward, ask him
if he realizes how much time
he is spending there. He may
be shocked when you read him
the number of hours. That’s the
time to express how isolated and
unneeded this has made you feel.
He may be willing to install an
app that signals when the time
limit he has allotted himself is up.
Discuss making a “date” for
the two of you to get out of the
house as a couple on a regular
basis — without devices — to
take a walk, go to the park or have
socially distanced coffee some-
where, which may interrupt his
habit and enable you to enjoy
some time together when you are
both fully present. But if he isn’t
interested, you may have to decide
if you want to continue being his
lady-in-waiting.
DEAR ABBY: Is it rude or dis-
respectful for someone to change
their first name? I’m in my early
30s and have wanted to change
mine my whole life. I changed
DEAR DISCONNECTED:
Many people change their name(s)
for various reasons. If you feel the
need to do it in order to be a more
authentic version of yourself, go
for it. Assuming you have told
your parents how you feel about
your first name, I doubt they’ll
be any more upset about it than
they were when they helped you
change its spelling as a teenager.
A word of caution, however.
The process may take more time
than you would like because the
pandemic has slowed the court
system considerably. Also, once
you change your name, you will
need to change it on all official
identifying documents, such as
your driver’s license, insurance
documents, passport, etc., which
can be time-consuming.
the spelling of my name when I
was 12, and my parents legally
changed it for me when I was a
teenager. But I still don’t like the
name, and I cringe whenever I
hear it.
Because it’s a common name
for someone my age, I’m sure
most people won’t understand if
I change it. While I respect the
effort my parents put into selecting
a name for me, I don’t want to be
stuck with this one for the rest of
my life. I don’t want to cause hurt
feelings. However, I’m ultimately
the one who has to live with it.
Should I do what feels right for
me, or must I accept the negative
feelings and the disconnect I have
toward the name to spare my fam-
ily’s feelings?
— DISCONNECTED
News of the Weird
Potty training: NASA
tests new $23M
titanium space toilet
By Marcia Dunn
Associated Press Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL,
Fla. — NASA’s first new
space potty in decades — a
$23 million titanium toilet
better suited for women —
is getting a not-so-dry run
at the International Space
Station before eventually
flying to the moon.
It’s packed inside a
cargo ship that should have
blasted off late Thursday,
Oct. 1, from Wallops Island,
Virginia. But the launch
was aborted with just two
minutes remaining in the
countdown. Northrop
Grumman said it would try
again Friday night if engi-
neers can figure out what
went wrong.
Barely 100 pounds and
just 28 inches tall, the new
toilet is roughly half as big
as the two Russian-built
ones at the space station.
It’s more camper-size to fit
into the NASA Orion cap-
sules that will carry astro-
nauts to the moon in a few
years.
Station residents will test
it out for a few months. If
the shakedown goes well,
the toilet will be open for
regular business.
With SpaceX now
launching astronauts to the
space station and Boeing
less than a year from
sending up its first crew,
more toilets are needed.
The new one will be in its
own stall alongside the old
one on the U.S. side of the
outpost.
The old toilets cater
more toward men. To better
accommodate women,
Charles Krupa/Associated Press, File
Ireland’s Supreme Court has ruled the bread the the fast
food chain Subway sells contains so much sugar it cannot
legally be defined as bread.
growing and a cinematic
360-degree VR camera for
you-are-there spacewalk
shots.
Perhaps the most unique
payload: Estee Lauder’s
newest wrinkle serum.
The cosmetics company is
paying $128,000 for an out-
of-this-world photo shoot,
part of NASA’s push to
open the final frontier to
marketing, industry and
tourism.
Don’t count on perfumed
aromas, though, to counter
bathroom odors. The serum
is fragrance-free and the 10
bottles will remain sealed
until returned to Earth early
next year.
Norah Moran/NASA via AP
In this June 18, 2020, astronaut Kate Rubins, center, and support personnel review the
Universal Waste Management System, a low-gravity space toilet, in Houston.
vital, vital thing to know
how to do,” she told The
Associated Press earlier this
week.
The typical space sta-
tion population will go
from six to seven with the
next SpaceX flight, and
even more when non-pro-
fessionals like tourists start
showing up as early as next
year. Astronauts normally
stay six months.
The last time NASA
ordered up a new toilet
was in the early 1990s to
accommodate two-week
space shuttle missions. The
agency contracted with Col-
lins Aerospace to provide
the latest model; the com-
pany also worked on the
shuttle potties.
Also in the 8,000-pound
(3,600-kilogram) shipment
aboard Northrop Grum-
man’s Cygnus capsule:
air tanks to make up for a
slight space station leak,
radish seeds for greenhouse
long-standing recycling
system to produce water
for drinking and cooking.
Titanium and other tough
alloys were chosen for the
new toilet to withstand
all the acid in the urine
pretreatment.
Going to the bathroom
in space may sound simple,
but “sometimes the simple
things become very diffi-
cult” without gravity, said
NASA astronaut Mike Hop-
kins, commander of the
second SpaceX crew, due to
launch Oct. 31 from Ken-
nedy Space Center.
While the old design
isn’t that hard to use,
subtle design changes can
make all the difference for
women, noted NASA astro-
naut Shannon Walker, a
former space station resi-
dent who’s also on the next
SpaceX crew.
“Trust me, I’ve got going
to the bathroom in space
down, because that is a
NASA tilted the seat on
the new toilet and made
it taller. The new shape
should help astronauts posi-
tion themselves better for
No. 2, said Johnson Space
Center’s Melissa McKinley,
the project manager.
“Cleaning up a mess is
a big deal. We don’t want
any misses or escapes,” she
said.
Let’s just say everything
floats in weightlessness.
As for No. 1, the funnels
also have been redesigned.
Women can use the elon-
gated and scooped-out fun-
nels to urinate while sitting
on the commode to poop at
the same time, McKinley
said. Until now, it’s been
one or the other for female
astronauts, she noted.
Like earlier space com-
modes, air suction, rather
than water and gravity,
removes the waste. Urine
collected by the new toilet
will be routed into NASA’s
weather
Subway bread isn’t
bread, Irish court
says
Associated Press
LONDON — Ireland’s
Supreme Court has ruled
that bread sold by the fast
food chain Subway contains
so much sugar that it cannot
be legally defined as bread.
The ruling came in a
tax dispute brought by
Bookfinders Ltd., an Irish
Subway franchisee, which
argued that some of its
takeaway products —
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
53/64
Kennewick
54/66
St. Helens
53/69
Hood River
49/73
49/76
54/69
49/70
Condon
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
Clearing
Mostly sunny
and warm
Cloudy,
showers; cooler
Cool with
clouds and sun
Showers
possible
59 36
54 30
58 31
Eugene
1
2
8
48/71
59 39
55 35
60 39
1
2
5
La Grande
42 73 46
Comfort Index™ 10
Enterprise
10
38 72 42
Comfort Index™ 10
51 31
56 34
0
2
8
10
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 106°
Low: 14°
Wettest: 1.88”
86°
35°
79°
34°
87°
33°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Tuesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
0.00
0.00
0.10
2.99
7.74
0.00
0.00
0.18
13.39
11.76
0.00
0.00
0.21
26.04
16.14
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
30%
S at 4 to 8 mph
5.9
0.12
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
9% of capacity
21% of capacity
41% of capacity
42% of capacity
13% of capacity
6% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
Burnt River near Unity
Umatilla River near Gibbon
Minam River at Minam
Powder River near Richland
OREGON
Bend
Lakeview
Powers
53/71
Lead, S.D., had 36 inches of snow on Oct.
8, 1982, but just 20 miles away in Rapid
City, which is at a lower elevation, there
was only a trace.
SUN & MOON
THU.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
FRI.
7:00 a.m. 7:01 a.m.
6:19 p.m. 6:17 p.m.
10:20 p.m. 11:15 p.m.
1:39 p.m. 2:33 p.m.
MOON PHASES
702 cfs
16 cfs
15 cfs
45 cfs
68 cfs
23 cfs
Last
Oct 9
New
Oct 16
First
Oct 23
52/76
Full
Oct 31
Jordan Valley
41/73
Paisley
34/76
34/72
Frenchglen
41/76
50/79
Brookings
45/77
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
64/55/pc
77/49/pc
78/52/s
64/55/pc
78/33/c
66/56/pc
69/51/pc
73/42/s
74/45/s
71/54/pc
79/53/pc
73/55/pc
74/46/s
76/49/pc
71/42/pc
78/58/s
73/41/pc
75/34/pc
Hi/Lo/W
60/50/r
56/38/r
71/43/sh
59/50/r
57/32/c
61/50/r
58/45/r
63/37/sh
55/40/sh
58/46/r
62/49/sh
60/49/r
69/42/sh
58/40/sh
59/36/sh
62/47/sh
56/33/r
56/26/c
Grand View
Arock
43/79
38/78
41/79
Klamath Falls
31/73
Lakeview
26/75
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
FRI.
Diamond
41/74
Fields
Medford
53/64
Boise
49/78
Silver Lake
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
39/78
34/75
38/77
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Palm Springs, Calif.
Walden, Colo.
Jacksonville, Fla.
High: 88°
Low: 27°
Wettest: none
Beaver Marsh
Juntura
30/78
39/74
31/71
Roseburg
Ontario
41/80
Burns
Brothers
46/75
Coos Bay
Huntington
41/74
42/77
Oakridge
40/73
46/75
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Council
37/79
46/76
38/77
Florence
TUESDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
38/73
John Day
37/77
Sisters
51/66
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
41/79
Baker City
Redmond
52/63
52/63
Halfway
Granite
46/69
Newport
51/72
58 37
43/77
44/71
48/68
Corvallis
Enterprise
38/72
42/73
Monument
44/75
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
10
41/74
La Grande
46/74
Maupin
Comfort Index™ 10
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
50/76
53/76
49/77
TIllamook
37 79 41
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Walla Walla
50/78
Vancouver
52/67
53/65
Baker City
including teas, coffees and
heated sandwiches — were
not liable for value-added
tax.
A panel of judges
rejected the appeal Tuesday,
ruling that the bread sold by
Subway contains too much
sugar to be categorized as a
“staple food,” which is not
taxed.
“There is no dispute
that the bread supplied by
Subway in its sandwiches
has a sugar content of 10%
of the weight of the flour
included in the dough, and
thus exceeds the 2% speci-
fied,” the judgement read.
The law makes a dis-
tinction between “bread
as a staple food” and other
baked goods “which are,
or approach, confectionery
or fancy baked goods,” the
judgement said.
Subway disagreed with
the characterization in a
statement.
“Subway’s bread is, of
course, bread,” the com-
pany said in an email. “We
have been baking fresh
bread in our restaurants for
more than three decades
and our guests return each
day for sandwiches made
on bread that smells as good
as it tastes.”
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
FRI.
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
76/51/s
66/56/c
71/44/s
77/52/pc
63/55/pc
66/52/r
80/42/s
79/54/s
77/53/s
69/56/pc
71/54/pc
77/49/pc
76/54/pc
68/54/pc
71/50/s
76/53/pc
74/43/s
76/54/s
Hi/Lo/W
59/47/sh
59/49/r
54/38/sh
59/45/r
59/51/r
59/45/r
61/41/sh
63/46/sh
59/46/sh
60/50/r
60/48/r
60/35/r
61/48/r
61/48/r
56/41/sh
61/47/r
55/36/sh
59/46/sh
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Partly sunny
Partly sunny; warm
57
37
74
42
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny; nice
63
43
76
45
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Partly sunny
Mostly sunny; warm
61
35
69
41
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Partly sunny; warm
Mostly sunny
71
42
76
50
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Partly sunny; warm
Mostly sunny; warm
79
41
73
46