COFFEE BREAK
B8 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THuRSDAY, AuguST 5, 2021
Woman directs anger at parents after diagnosis
deal with this now? — On
The Spectrum in Texas
Dear On The Spec-
trum: Your parents believed
the (many) “experts” they
consulted. The doctors mis-
diagnosed you. That is
regrettable, but now you
know what you are dealing
with, it’s time to concen-
trate on your future instead
of the past. If your current
physician can’t help you
with this, ask to be referred
to someone who can help
you to dissipate your
anger. It would be far more
therapeutic for you than
blaming your parents at this
late date.
allowing so many doctors
to tell me I had disorders
and illnesses I never had
(per the person who diag-
nosed me with autism) and
for letting me be pumped
full of so many medica-
tions from childhood all the
way through college. I feel
my parents caused me emo-
tional and physical harm
(especially physical because
of all those meds).
While I’m glad to know
the truth about why I’m the
way I am, I can’t help but
be furious with them for
allowing something that
may have caused me irrep-
arable damage. How can I
Dear Abby: I’m the
mother of an 8-year-old with
autism. A few months ago,
I was also diagnosed with
autism. While I viewed this
news for the most part in a
rather positive light, I also
have some mixed feelings.
The good: This diagnosis
finally explains everything
about the way I’ve behaved
my entire life. The not-so-
good: I feel betrayed to an
extent by my parents for
children hearing some of
the conversations around
these issues. I feel miser-
able leading up to every
get-together, and so does
my husband. However, she’s
clingy! I have canceled the
last three times we were
supposed to get together,
and she doesn’t get the mes-
sage. How can I unfriend
her without crushing her? I
honestly don’t want to hurt
her, but I am fried! — So
Over It in the South
Dear So Over It:
Because this woman is
unable to intuit that the
atmosphere has changed,
you will have to explain it
Dear Abby: I have a
friend who enjoys getting
her family together with
mine. We used to take turns
doing dinners at each oth-
er’s houses. However, she,
her kids and her husband
are extremely picky eaters.
They don’t all like the
same things, so I’m usually
cooking three meals when
they come over.
The more I’ve gotten
to know them, the more I
realize our values and opin-
ions on certain major issues
are very, very different. I
no longer enjoy their com-
pany at all and don’t feel
comfortable with my young
to her. Start by telling her
that preparing three sepa-
rate meals to cater to her
family’s tastes has become
too much for you. If nec-
essary, follow it up with
the fact that you no longer
want your children exposed
to the dinner conversation,
which prohibits you from
having them over. Those
are valid reasons, and as
long as you don’t mention
that the thought of seeing
her and her husband makes
you and your husband mis-
erable, she shouldn’t be
“crushed.” Do not, how-
ever, expect her to take the
news easily.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Earth’s longer days kick-started oxygen growth
‘Big chair’ in front
of Vermont bank
damaged by vandals
By SETH BORENSTEIN
The Associated Press
LAKE HURON — Sci-
entists have a new idea for
how Earth got its oxygen:
It’s because the planet
slowed down and days got
longer.
A study published
Monday, Aug. 2, and puts
to the test the theory that
longer, continuous daylight
kick-started weird bac-
teria into producing lots of
oxygen, making most of
life as we know it possible.
They dredged up gooey
purple bacteria from a deep
sinkhole in Lake Huron and
tinkered with how much
light it got in lab exper-
iments. The more con-
tinuous light the smelly
microbes got, the more
oxygen they produced.
One of the great mys-
teries in science is just how
Earth went from a planet
with minimal oxygen to
the breathable air we have
now. Scientists long figured
microbes called cyanobac-
teria, were involved, but
couldn’t tell what started
the great oxygenation
event.
Researchers in a study
in the Aug. 2 Nature Geo-
science theorize that
Earth’s slowing rotation,
which gradually length-
ened days from six hours to
the current 24 hours, was
key for the cyanobacteria
in making the planet more
breathable.
About 2.4 billion years
ago there was so little
oxygen in Earth’s atmo-
sphere that it could barely
be measured, so no animal
or plant life like we know
could live. Instead, lots
Phil Hartmeyer/NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
A scuba diver observes the purple, white and green microbes covering rocks in Lake Huron’s Middle Island Sinkhole. Feel like days are just
getting longer? They are and it’s a good thing because we wouldn’t have much to breathe if they weren’t, according to a new explanation
for how Earth’s oxygen rich atmosphere may have developed because of Earth’s rotation slowing. Scientists provided evidence for this new
hypothesis by lab testing gooey smelly purple bacteria from a deep sinkhole in Lake Huron.
of microbes breathed in
carbon dioxide, and in the
case of cyanobacteria, pro-
duced oxygen in the earliest
form of photosynthesis.
At first it wasn’t much,
but in only about 400 mil-
lion years Earth’s atmo-
sphere went to one-tenth
the amount of oxygen we
have now — a huge jump,
said the study’s lead author,
Judith Klatt, a biogeo-
chemist at the Max Planck
Institute in Germany. That
oxygen burst allowed plants
and animals to evolve, with
other plants now joining in
the oxygen-making party,
she said.
But why did the bacteria
go on the oxygen making
binge? That’s where Univer-
sity of Michigan oceanog-
rapher Brian Arbic comes
in. He studies tidal forces
on Earth and how they’ve
slowed Earth’s rotation.
Arbic was listening to a col-
league’s lecture about cya-
nobacteria and he noticed
that the oxygen event coin-
cided with the timing of
Earth’s days getting longer.
The planet’s rotation slows
because of the complicated
physics of tidal friction and
interaction with the moon.
The Michigan and
German researchers put
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
up to 26 straight hours.
They found that more con-
tinuous light caused the
microbes to produce more
oxygen.
The study authors and
outside scientists said this is
just one possible but plau-
sible explanation for Earth’s
oxygen increase.
What makes the idea so
impressive is that it doesn’t
require any big biological
changes in bacteria or the
world’s oceans, said Tim
Lyons, a professor of bio-
geochemistry at the Uni-
versity of California, River-
side, who wasn’t part of the
research team.
their theory to the test with
bacteria similar to what
would have been around 2.4
billion years ago. They used
purple and white mats of
cyanobacteria living in an
eerie world of the sinkhole
nearly 79 feet deep in Lake
Huron.
“We actually imagine
that the world looked kind
of like the Middle Island
sinkhole for most of its his-
tory,” Klatt said.
Divers brought up the
gelatinous carpets of bac-
teria, which smell like
rotten eggs. Klatt and col-
leagues exposed them to
varying amounts of light,
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
59/67
Kennewick
63/77
St. Helens
64/76
Hood River
64/75
61/81
Condon
71/82
65/78
FRI
Baker City
55 83 51
Comfort Index™
La Grande
5
5
7
MON
Mostly sunny
and pleasant
Eugene
6
9
9
62/82
84 56
79 52
80 52
8
9
9
79 50
7
10
9
10
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 122°
Low: 36°
Wettest: 5.87”
96°
52°
95°
55°
103°
57°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
0.00
0.34
0.04
2.80
6.03
0.09
0.21
0.06
6.33
10.72
0.00
0.23
0.06
15.60
15.29
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
35%
WNW at 7 to 14 mph
3.6
0.23
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
3% of capacity
41% of capacity
25% of capacity
56% of capacity
10% of capacity
11% 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
Hermiston
Lakeview
Burns
Powers
58/79
Intense thunderstorms caused fl ooding
in southeastern Pennsylvania on Aug. 5,
1843. Up to 16 inches of rain fell in three
hours. The storms unleashed tornadoes in
Mercer County, N.J.
SUN & MOON
THU.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
5:42 a.m.
8:14 p.m.
2:27 a.m.
6:53 p.m.
FRI.
5:43 a.m.
8:13 p.m.
3:21 a.m.
7:39 p.m.
MOON PHASES
517 cfs
109 cfs
114 cfs
41 cfs
104 cfs
31 cfs
New
Aug 8
First
Aug 15
Full
Aug 22
63/85
Last
Aug 29
Jordan Valley
55/81
Paisley
48/85
43/81
Frenchglen
53/82
57/91
Brookings
61/90
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
67/55/pc
78/54/pc
85/63/s
69/54/pc
83/50/pc
69/54/sh
78/55/c
85/56/pc
80/51/c
82/55/c
86/64/s
75/61/c
82/56/pc
82/54/pc
77/51/pc
88/65/s
84/49/s
85/48/pc
Hi/Lo/W
67/56/r
87/55/s
89/66/s
67/52/pc
89/53/s
68/56/pc
83/58/pc
87/59/s
85/55/pc
88/59/pc
89/65/s
84/65/pc
90/61/s
89/56/s
81/50/s
91/66/s
89/51/s
90/53/s
Grand View
Arock
63/88
57/84
55/87
Klamath Falls
43/84
Lakeview
41/85
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
FRI.
Diamond
53/82
Fields
Medford
52/69
Boise
64/85
Silver Lake
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
58/88
45/83
52/84
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Death Valley, Calif.
Berthoud Pass, Colo.
Piney Island, N.C.
High: 106°
Low: 41°
Wettest: Trace
Beaver Marsh
Juntura
51/83
46/77
43/80
Roseburg
Ontario
66/90
Burns
Brothers
57/78
Coos Bay
Huntington
49/76
54/78
Oakridge
63/85
67/86
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
TUESDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
Tuesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
Florence
Council
55/83
54/82
53/78
58/69
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.
51/74
John Day
50/80
Sisters
63/80
78 48
57/86
Baker City
Redmond
54/62
57/65
Halfway
Granite
60/78
Newport
80 45
82 53
58/84
58/75
63/79
Corvallis
83 46
9
54 78 49
Comfort Index™
SUN
Enterprise
54/78
60/80
Monument
63/80
Idanha
Salem
87 53
9
60 80 54
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
SAT
Partly sunny and Partly sunny and
pleasant
pleasant
58/80
La Grande
59/77
Maupin
Not as warm
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
67/89
65/85
64/83
TIllamook
Patchy clouds
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Walla Walla
70/88
Vancouver
63/78
60/71
TONIGHT
BENNINGTON, Vt. —
A giant ladderback chair
that stands 19 feet tall may
be big but it wasn’t tough
enough for some vandals.
Damage to the massive
“Big Chair” made from
3,000 pounds of cedar
and white pine was cap-
tured last week by sur-
veillance video outside
a credit union where the
chair sits. The video shows
two males and two females
climbing and jumping on
the chair.
The original chair was
built in the late 1940s and
became a popular road-
side attraction. Over the
decades it has been rebuilt
several times.
The security video cap-
tured the moment the
joints gave way, apparently
injuring one of the vandals
who was seen being helped
away.
The Bennington Banner
reports the weight of the
people who climbed on the
chair caused the sockets
that held the cross pieces
to split wide open. Now the
chair’s wooden joints are
in splinters and the rope
seat is no longer in place.
“We have people on
a daily basis come and
take pictures with the
chair. They drive here
specifically to see it,”
said Linda M. Bow, the
chief business officer for
the Tri State Area Fed-
eral Credit Union’s Ben-
nington branch. Bow said.
“It’s going to be hard to
replace. It wasn’t meant
for climbing.”
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
89/64/pc
77/57/pc
79/53/c
90/63/s
62/51/sh
75/55/pc
90/64/s
91/64/s
83/59/pc
78/60/pc
79/58/pc
80/52/pc
85/61/sh
79/58/c
82/60/pc
82/66/pc
78/49/pc
85/64/pc
Hi/Lo/W
88/68/s
72/59/pc
85/55/pc
95/64/s
63/52/pc
72/56/pc
92/65/s
91/63/s
88/64/s
80/61/c
82/58/pc
88/54/s
90/64/s
84/62/pc
80/60/s
87/66/s
84/49/pc
87/63/s
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
Sunny intervals
Nice with some sun
54
45
76
47
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Partly sunny
Partly sunny
66
50
85
59
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Partly sunny
Not as warm
65
42
73
45
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Partly sunny
Not as warm
77
51
83
57
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Periods of sun
Not as warm
83
51
80
54