Accro à la roulette ?

Selon des chercheurs américains, miser de l’argentrevient à… prendre une dose de cocaïne ! Pourarriver à cette constatation, les scientifiques ontrecruté douze hommes à qui ils ont donnéprès de 400 Francs à miser à la roulette. Achaque fois, les gains et pertes éventuelles leurétaient annoncés. En observant le cerveau parrésonance magnétique, les scientifiques ontconstaté que les zones activées étaient lesmêmes que chez les toxicomanes. Mais, selon les chercheurs,les mécanismes en jeu sont complexes et on ne peut conclurequ’il s’agit du même phénomène dansles deux cas. De plus, la zone impliquée intervient dans denombreux phénomènes de “récompense“ et deplaisir, notamment tactiles et gustatifs.
Les chercheurs ont fait d’autres constatations. L’uned’elle semble logique : plus la somme jouée estimportante, plus le cerveau s’emballe… Plus surprenant,le maximum de neurones s’active au moment de l’annoncedu risque de gain ou de pertes. Le fait de gagner ou de perdreensuite cette somme semblait moins… excitant : pour lecerveau, l’important ne semble pas être de gagner, maisbien de participer…
Source : Neuron, mai 2001, vol. 30 (n° 2) ; p.619-639

Insomnie : Ne comptez pas sur les moutons

Compter les moutons n’aide pas à s’endormir plusvite ! C’est ce que révèle une étudetrès sérieuse sur les troubles du sommeil et lesmoyens d’y faire face.
Des scientifiques de l’université d’Oxford(Grande-Bretagne) ont réuni 50 insomniaques. Ils leur ontproposé différents thèmes à imaginer lesoir pour s’endormir. Un groupe devait penser à unescène relaxante, tel que le fait d’être envacances ou à proximité d’une cascade. Un autredevait penser au classique comptage de moutons. Le troisièmegroupe jouait le rôle de témoin : ils n’avaientreçu aucune consigne.
Résultat : ceux qui pensaient à une scènebucolique s’endormaient 20 minutes plus tôtqu’avant. Par contre, ceux qui comptaient les ovinss’endormaient aussi tard que le groupe témoin.Dénombrer les moutons n’aurait ainsi aucun effetbénéfique !
Selon les chercheurs, ils seraient insuffisants pour chasserl’anxiété et le stress, qui empêchentsouvent les insomniaques de tomber dans les bras de Morphée.Ces mêmes scientifiques ont d’ailleurs cherchéà éliminer le stress avant le sommeil.
Ils ont demandé à certains membres de leuréchantillon d’éviter les penséesnégatives en se couchant. Cela a eu l’effet inverse decelui escompté : ils mettaient 10 minutes de plus às’endormir. Car justement, en essayant d’oublier leursproblèmes, ils ne faisaient qu’y penser ! Donc si vousaviez l’habitude de compter les moutons, ne vous forcez pasà ne plus y penser, vous ne feriez qu’aggraver leproblème. Remplacez-les par des images de vosdernières vacances, sauf si c’était enIrlande…
Source : New Scientist, 23 janvier 2002Click Here: Fjallraven Kanken Art Spring Landscape Backpacks

Jason Statham dans “Fast & Furious” 6 et 7 ?

Universal Pictures négocierait l’arrivée de Jason Statham dans la saga “Fast & Furious” pour les opus 6 et/ou 7…

Click Here: Cheap France Rugby Jersey

Pourquoi n’est-on pas surpris… Suivant la voie ouverte par Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson dans Fast Five, Jason Statham serait en discussion avec Universal pour venir muscler (comme si elle en avait besoin) la franchise Fast & Furious, dont les opus 6 et 7 pourraient se tourner en Europe et dans la foulée l’un de l’autre, pas plus tard que l’an prochain. Un choix de casting plutôt cohérent (mais loin d’être acquis, apparemment, que ce soit pour l’un des deux épisodes ou pour les deux), vu les multiples occasions qu’a eu le Transporteur de manifester son goût pour les bagnoles, la castagne et les cascades. Tout ça va finir par ressembler à un Expendables version tuning…

A.G. avec Twitchfilm

Live Sports Trickles Back To Life With Horse Racing In Ontario

TORONTO — The $1-million Queen’s Plate will remain North America’s longest, continuously run stakes race.

Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson announced Monday the opening leg of Canada’s Triple Crown will be run Sept. 12 at Woodbine Racetrack. The Queen’s Plate dates back to 1860 and is widely regarded as the country’s most popular and recognized horse race.

As well, the $125,000 Plate Trial and $500,000 Woodbine Oaks — two key prep races for the Queen’s Plate — will both be held Aug. 15 at Woodbine. The Oaks is Canada’s premier event for three-year-old fillies and the opening leg of the Canadian Triple Tiara.

“The main part of our thinking was we had to get the prep races in,” Lawson said. “We wanted to have Oaks and Plate Trial as lead-ins again to have the boys-versus-the-girls setup.

“A major thinking was letting the three-year-old fillies get time to run the Oaks and then set it up as a prep race for the Plate.” 

READ MORE

  • Ontario To Resume Surgeries, Open More Retail Stores May 19
  • Pam Anderson Renews Stampede Plea To Premier ‘Before More Horses Die’
  • 6 Chuckwagon Horses Have Died At The Calgary Stampede

The Queen’s Plate will be followed by the $1-million Woodbine Mile, a Grade 1 turf race which will be run Sept. 19 at Woodbine Racetrack. This will mark the first time ever that the Plate and Mile will run on consecutive weekends.

“NBC Sports is coming up for [Woodbine Mile],” Lawson said. “We didn’t think it was the right thing to run the Plate and the Mile on the same day,” he continued.

“They’re both big events so keep them separate.”

The 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate, which is run on Woodbine’s Tapeta course, is for three-year-olds foaled in Canada. It was originally scheduled to be run June 27 at Woodbine Racetrack but the race was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Woodbine Entertainment was forced to postpone the April 18 start of its ’20 thoroughbred card because of the outbreak. Last week, Lawson divulged plans to begin live thoroughbred racing June 6 at the Toronto oval without fans.

On Thursday, the Ontario government included horse racing — again, minus spectators — in the first phase of its reopening of the province’s economy. As a result, horse racing was given the green light to begin as early as Tuesday.

That paved the way for Woodbine to adhere to its plan of resuming harness racing June 5 at Woodbine Mohawk Park and kick-starting the thoroughbred campaign June 6.

Watch: Here’s what you can experience at the Queen’s Plate. Story continues below. 

 

While thoroughbred racing at Woodbine will be held without fans, the hope is by September restrictions will have been eased to the point where some spectators could be allowed to attend the Plate.

And that’s important to Woodbine Entertainment because the Plate is much more than just a horse race. Woodbine stages a festival around the event that includes outdoor concerts and a variety of social functions.

“We’re going to be subject to city of Toronto and government health guidelines,” Lawson said. “But I think it’s reasonable to think in the fall there might be spectators.”

Lawson said Woodbine Entertainment is also expected to divulge its revised stakes schedule sometime this week.

With the 1 1/4-mile Queen’s Plate starting later than normal, so too will the two remaining legs of Canada’s Triple Crown.

The $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, a 1 3/16-mile dirt race, is expected to be held Sept. 29 at Fort Erie Racetrack. The $400,000 Breeders’ Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf race, will go Oct. 24 at Woodbine. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 18, 2020

Large Companies Seeking Federal COVID-19 Loans Must Give Cash, Option Of Ownership Stake To Government

OTTAWA — Large companies that receive bridge financing through a new federal loan program will have to give the government the option to take an ownership stake, or provide a cash equivalent.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau says the terms will be the same for any company asking for help through the program that opens for applications today.

He says the terms are designed to make sure companies using the program receive bridge loans, not bailouts, to get through COVID-19′s economic disruptions.

Watch: Expert weighs in on Ottawa’s support for big business

 

Publicly traded companies, or any their private subsidiaries, will have to issue warrants giving the government the option of purchasing shares worth 15 per cent of the loan, or receiving the equivalent in cash. Privately held companies will pay the same in fees, Morneau says.

“The idea behind the warrant is to make sure that if the firm does well that Canadians, and Canadian taxpayers, share in that upside,” he says.

“The Canadian government will not be required to take that value in shares, it can take it in cash.”

The Liberals have said the loans would be on commercial terms, and require companies to have already gone to banks or the market and been unable to meet their financial needs.

Recipients would also have to agree to limits on executive compensation, dividend payments and share buy-backs, as well as show they are contributing to the Liberals’ goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

RELATED

  • Emergency Wage-Subsidy Program Extended Until End Of August: PM

  • Canada’s Biggest Companies Offered Federal Help Amid COVID-19 Crisis

  • Feds, Provinces To Cover 75% Of Rent Costs For Small Businesses For 3 Months

 

Loans would start at $60 million with no upper limit, Morneau says, and be targeted at firms with earnings of at least $300 million.

Morneau says the loan program for Canada’s largest corporations is so they can stay open and keep employees on their payrolls and to avoid bankruptcies of otherwise viable firms, wherever possible.

Interest will be set at five per cent in the first year, rising to eight per cent in the second year, and two per cent annually thereafter. The terms of the program posted online say companies can pay off the interest on the loan through in-kind contributions, usually goods or services, for the first two years of the loan.

“What we’ve done here is make sure we’re providing a low level of interest in the first year, but one that’s appropriate so that employers that seek this will first go to their own sources of financing,” Morneau said during a morning news conference in Toronto.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2020.

Click Here: Rugby league Jerseys

CMHC’s Evan Siddall Warns Canadian Homebuyers Face ‘Debt Cliff’ This Fall

Canadian consumers will face previously unheard-of levels of debt in the coming months as households grapple with shrinking incomes and mounting bills, the head of Canada’s government-run mortgage insurer says.

There were virtually no silver linings in Evan Siddall’s testimony to the House of Commons finance committee Tuesday ― testimony Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre described as “bloody terrifying.”

One in eight households with a mortgage have deferred their payments, and that could rise to one in five by September if the economic recovery disappoints, Siddall ― CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) ―  told parliamentarians. 

Watch: Tips for growing savings on a low income. Story continues below.

 

Canada lost more than three million jobs in March and April amid the COVID-19 lockdown, and the total number of hours worked shrank by nearly 30 per cent

Canada’s major lenders put in place programs allowing mortgage borrowers to defer payments for several months. Those deferrals are set to expire in the fall.

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which provides $2,000 a month for up to 16 weeks for those who lost work in the pandemic, will also expire around that time, if it isn’t extended.

“A team is at work within CMHC to help manage a growing debt ‘deferral cliff’ that looms in the fall, when some unemployed people will need to start paying their mortgages again,” Siddall said.

RELATED

  • Canada Puts Housing Markets On $150-Billion Life Support
  • Canada's Average Home Sale Price Falls 11% In A Month
  • Pandemic Puts A Question Mark Over Future Of Canada's Cities

A key measure of how well households can handle their debt will hit its worst level on record, CMHC predicts. That’s because unpaid bills are piling up even as households are seeing lower incomes.

The ratio of household debt to disposable income will rise to “well above” 200 per cent ― possibly as high as 230 per cent ― before starting to decline. The highest it had ever been before was 178 per cent, several years ago at the height of the house-price explosion.

“Almost everything we’ve done in response to the crisis involves borrowing,” Siddall said. “Just as governments are taking on more debt … mortgage deferrals (are) adding to household debt.

“The resulting combination of higher mortgage debt, declining house prices and increased unemployment is cause for concern for Canada’s long term financial stability.”

CMHC sees house prices in Canada falling between 9 per cent and 18 per cent over the next 12 months. Siddall warned that first-time homebuyers who are early into their mortgages could find themselves underwater ― meaning their mortgage could be larger than the market value of their house.

“Unless we act, a first-time homebuyer purchasing a $300,000 home with a 5 per cent down payment stands to lose over $45,000 on their $15,000 investment if prices fall by 10 per cent,” Siddall said.

He noted that, as the underwriter of a majority of insured mortgages in Canada, CMHC will be on the hook for paying off banks’ bad mortgages ― which he estimates could cost some $9 billion in this crisis. Siddall said the CMHC is looking at pulling back on its underwriting of home lending ― a move that could potentially reduce Canadians’ access to mortgages.

“Housing demand is far easier to stimulate than supply, and the result we have seen is Economics 101 ― ever-increasing prices,” Siddall said.

Click Here: United Kingdom Rugby Jerseys

“So if housing affordability is our aim … then there has to be a limit to the demand we create especially when supply isn’t keeping up.”

CMHC’s support for the housing market “cannot be unlimited. It’s like blood pressure. You can have too much. You need some,” Siddall said.

Trudeau Urges Commercial Landlords To Buy Into Rental Assistance Program

OTTAWA — Canada’s commercial landlords got a request and a warning from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to buy into rental assistance program launching next week, as part of a handful of moves in one day to get billions in federal aid to companies large and small.

The program opens for application on Monday, designed to provide forgivable loans to landlords that offer a 75-per-cent break on rent, with June payments due in a few days.

Business groups have warned of leery landlords unlikely to take part in the program, which is delivered jointly with provinces and territories.

A survey from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business on Wednesday suggested the program could make the difference between surviving or succumbing to the COVID-19 pandemic for half of small businesses. A similar number of small businesses were concerned about being unable to pay June’s rent without further help.

“The closer we get to June 1, the more stressful things are getting and the more business failures we will see,” Laura Jones, the organization’s executive vice-president, said in a statement. “We’re begging governments to move quickly to create additional help outside” of the rent relief program.

Speaking outside his Ottawa residence, Trudeau said further business closures through the pandemic could end up slowing an eventual economic recovery, rather than aiding in a rebound.

He said commercial landlords could find themselves out of cash in the future if they evict tenants now.

“With many people discovering that we can work from home … there may be a lot of vacancies in commercial buildings over the coming months and years,” Trudeau said.

“That’s why making sure we’re supporting the businesses we have now to be able to stay in their spaces as we slowly restore our economy is going to be important, and we certainly expect landlords to be part of the solution.”

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. is to release information on the program next week, with payments to landlords expected to arrive by June 1, the Commons finance committee was told Tuesday.

The budget for federal aid has hit $151.7 billion, with tens of billions more in loans to put a floor under the economy to help in a rebound. A top central banker said Wednesday that revival could “occur in fits and starts,” the result of “repeated loosening and tightening of containment measures.”

Timothy Lane, deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, said some sectors may bounce back quickly, and fuel broader changes in the economy that aids productivity. Other sectors, including travel and energy, may feel longer-lasting effects.

“It is also unclear how long it will take for jobs to return after containment measures are lifted. Many people have lost their jobs in the shutdown, and this is deeply concerning,” he said in a speech, based on a text released by the bank.

Federal figures released Wednesday showed a benefit for hard-hit workers now has more than 8.1 million applicants who have received over $38.4 billion — pushing the Canada Emergency Response Benefit further beyond its $35-billion budget.

A $73-billion wage subsidy program designed to keep workers on company payrolls — and off the CERB — has now approved 215,661 claims, providing $5.7 billion in aid to companies to cover 75 per cent of wages for almost 2.8 million workers.

“We’ve been clear, we’re trying to support workers. We’re asking that employers work to minimize that loss of jobs,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Wednesday during a morning news conference in Toronto.

“Our best-case scenario, of course, is that we preserve firms, we preserve jobs and we get ourselves through this time and face up to what will be the next challenge.”

More aid became available Wednesday for Canada’s largest corporations as the government began accepting applications for a bridge financing program that will hand out loans starting at $60 million — with no upper limit — to companies with revenues of over $300 million.

Recipients will have to give the government the option to purchase shares in publicly traded companies worth 15 per cent of the loan, or provide a cash equivalent. Privately held companies will pay the same in fees. The government will also have the right to have observers on boards of directors.

The terms of the program are designed to ensure “that if the firm does well, that Canadians, and Canadian taxpayers, share in that upside,” Morneau said in unveiling the details. 

And the Liberals poured about $2 billion in additional child benefits to parents’ pockets through a special top-up of the Canada Child Benefit. The payment, like the benefit itself, was to be income-tested.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2020.

Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership

RELATED

  • Canadian Rental Rates Are Falling Fast Amid The COVID-19 Shutdown
  • 4 In 10 Businesses Can’t Survive 90 Days Of Social Distancing: Poll
  • House Prices 'To Remain Below Pre-Virus Level For Years': Report

Pier 1 Imports To Close All Stores As It Goes Out Of Business

NEW YORK — Pier 1, the seller of wicker chairs and scented candles, said it will go out of business and permanently close all 540 of its stores.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based company said Tuesday that it was unable to find a buyer for its business after filing for bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

It will start going-out-of-business sales as soon as it can reopen stores that have been temporarily shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

RELATED

  • Reitmans Seeks Bankruptcy Protection, Vows To Keep Operating

Pier 1 traces to a single store in 1962 that sold beanbag chairs and love beads to hippies in San Mateo, Calif. It expanded to offer just about anything for the home, from lounge chairs to curtains, and it later adopted the logo: “From Hippie to Hip.” At its height, Pier 1 had more than 1,200 stores.

But in recent years, its sales have fallen as it struggled to compete with online retailers Wayfair and Amazon, which sell sofas and coffee tables at a lower price and deliver them quickly.

Other chains that have failed to connect with customers have filed for bankruptcy protection recently, including Reitmans, J.C. Penney and J.Crew.

Click Here: camiseta seleccion argentina

Coronavirus South Shore: Health Field Grapples With Unknowns

BROCKTON, MA — Dr. Bruce Kriegel’s specialty is cardiology, but as the new coronavirus crisis deepens, he wonders if he’ll eventually be called on to practice a type of medicine he hasn’t performed since he was a resident, such as internal medicine.

“It’s a completely fluid situation that’s changing day to day and hour to hour,” Kriegel told Patch. “We’re serving our community and serving our country, and I feel privileged to do that. But at the same time, I’m feeling unsettled.”

What worries Kriegel most are the unknowns surrounding the COVID-19 virus and how quickly it could spread.

Click Here: camisetas de futbol baratas

“I’m more worried about what could happen if this becomes rapidly out of control and we don’t have ventilators that we are going to need and equipment that we are going to need,” he said.

Kriegel said he worked through outbreaks of other diseases such as H1N1 flu and Ebola, but COVID-19 with all its unknowns reminds him more of the HIV crisis of the 1980s.

“I started as a resident during the HIV epidemic,” he said. “To me, this feels more about that because we also didn’t really know anything about HIV.”

And Kriegel is concerned about the additional exposure risk he faces, a concern shared by many in the medical field.

Jean Cochran of Norton, a medical receptionist in Kriegel’s practice, has been talking with her three children about those risks.

“It occurred to me the first time this morning: Should I be wearing gloves? If not now, soon?” Cochran said. “I check patients in when they come into the practice. It’s common for me to collect money for copays. I sometimes have to have them sign documents. I’m passing pens and money.

“Each day, I’m becoming more and more aware and maybe a little more nervous,” she said. “I hate to use that word, because I’m generally not a nervous person.”

Robin Brides of Middleboro is a cardiac echo sonographer at a Brockton-area hospital. She said she is trying to live a normal life by going out to eat and spending time with her 85-year-old father after work.

But as a medical professional, that requires her to take extra precautions, because her job requires physical contact with patients during ultrasound scanning of their hearts. She believes she is more likely to contract the disease than to avoid it.

“If they’re saying people can be contagious two weeks prior to showing symptoms, how am I possibly not going to get it when I’m hand in hand with patients?” Brides asked.

The last time she visited her father, Brides said, “I took a change of clothes and a change of shoes with me. I’ll change out of my scrubs and wash my hands as soon as I get to the house.”

Cochran also said she’s avoiding public places, even if that means putting off normal errands or doing things for fun.

“If I’m going out, I’m kind of just trying to be outdoors or in nature,” she said. “But I have a dentist appointment next week, and I’m not sure I’m even going to go. I haven’t gone out to eat. I wouldn’t go to a concert or a crowded place. I wouldn’t go to a movie, and I love the movies.”

Roni Partosan of Braintree works as a nurse at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge and at the Diplomat Pharmacy, which specializes in infusing medicine for people with no immune system. She worries about misinformation being spread on social media and believes media coverage has created a lot of fear.

She’s carrying on with her job; caring for sick people is the reason she became a nurse in the first place.

Partosan also is trying to live as normally as possible. She still plans to travel to Punta Cana next month, and she’s not asking her kids to stop playing sports or any other activities. But she is asking that they take extra precautions such as opening doors with their sleeves, sneezing into their elbows and washing or sanitizing hands frequently.

“This one you have to be more vigilant because of the transmission of it,” Partosan told Patch. “I’m more aware of my surroundings and what I put on for equipment. The scary part is nobody knows who has it.”

The latest on coronavirus in Massachusetts and around the world

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

As of Wednesday there were 95 cases of coronavirus in Massachusetts, including 23 in Norfolk County.

>>>Don’t miss updates about precautions in your area as they are announced. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters

The disease, which apparently originated in animals, is now being transmitted from person to person, although the mechanism is not yet fully understood. Its symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, and many patients develop pneumonia. There is as yet no vaccine against COVID-19 and no antiviral treatment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the best way of to prevent the disease is to avoid close contact with people who are sick, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, and use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol if soap and water are not available.

To avoid spreading any respiratory illness, the CDC recommends staying at home if you are sick, covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and throwing the tissue in the trash, and cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces.

Massachusetts coronavirus coverage:

FL's Chilled Iguanas Fall From Trees But Learn To Adapt To Cold

MIAMI, FL — There was a time when Floridians could count on the occasional burst of wintry weather to knock iguanas from the trees and deliver a death knell to the exotic reptiles that have made their way from distant lands into Sunshine State parks and even the backyards of unsuspecting homeowners. Those days may soon be coming to an end.

“There’s going to be many, many incapacitated and dead iguanas throughout South Florida, but not nearly as many as we had when the initial iguanas were here — when they first started showing up and we had the big cold fronts,” nationally known animal expert Ron Magill of Zoo Miami told Patch Wednesday.

Magill made the observation following a night of temperatures that plunged into the upper 30s and low 40s around Miami. See also Burrowing Iguanas Cause A $1.8M Dam Problem In West Palm Beach

The unseasonable temperatures prompted the National Weather Service to issue an unusual advisory Tuesday night, warning South Florida residents not to be surprised if they see iguanas falling from the trees overnight.

“I haven’t personally seen any drop yet this morning,” Magill said.

Zoo Miami took precautions to keep its usual residents safe from the cold, though not for the iguanas that meander through the grounds, he said. “I did find one on the ground that was totally incapacitated.”

“The thing is now — as each year goes by — these iguanas learn to burrow themselves during the cold,” Magill said. “The ones that have not learned that are the ones that die. Then they don’t pass that gene on to the next generation.”

Unlike bufo toads, which secrete a poison that is deadly to dogs, the fallen iguanas do not pose a specific health threat to man’s best friend other than with their claws — and the fact that they can theoretically pass on salmonella, which is typical of reptiles.

While some people don’t mind the green invaders — with their rows of exotic spikes down the center of their neck, back and upper portion of the tail — others are happy to see them drop from the trees when the temperature falls below 40.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said male iguanas can grow to 5 feet in length and weigh up to 17 pounds.

The agency warns that iguanas can cause “considerable damage to infrastructure, including seawalls and sidewalks.” They are not protected in Florida except by anti-cruelty laws, so it is legal to kill them humanely on private property.

Magill — who has appeared on NBC’s “Today Show,” ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” “NBC Nightly News” and even CBS’ “The Late Show with David Letterman” — also had a disturbing observation regarding the state’s invasive Burmese pythons.

They don’t seem be affected by the cold nearly as much as they once were either, Magill said of the pythons, which have been known to grow as long as 18 feet and tip the scales at more than 100 pounds in Florida.

“A lot of them are adapting, and they burrow themselves into deep burrows or into the water, where that water temperature is always warm enough to get them through the snap,” Magill said.

Much like the green iguanas that fall from the trees, the pythons are learning how to survive a cold snap, making them even more of a threat to Florida’s native wildlife.

Click Here: los jaguares argentina

“I don’t know if it’s a matter of intelligence,” Magill said. “It’s just adapting. It’s just knowing that once they find the water, they realize the water is a lot warmer. They’ll stay there until that cold streak passes — until the sun comes out and they can re-energize again. They can recharge with the rays of the sun.”

That’s actually helpful information for the growing numbers of python hunters who capture and kill the unwelcome predators throughout South Florida.

“A lot of these snakes are found around the water areas, which is why the python hunters catch a lot of them on these levees,” Magill said. “The levees are always right alongside the canals or the bodies of water. The snakes will eventually come out of the water onto the levees, where they expose themselves to the sun to recharge.”

In general, the larger the snake, the more cold it can withstand over longer periods, Magill said.

Both pythons and iguanas will probably fare better this year than in previous South Florida winters as they pass on their newly honed survival skills from one generation to the next.

“As each year goes by, these animals adapt, and they’ll pass on that gene. I suspect you’ll start seeing iguanas going further and further north as each year passes,” Magill said. “It’s a real problem in southern Florida right now, but I suspect it will become a major problem throughout the state within the next five years.”

This week’s cold weather in Florida won’t do much to reduce the numbers of pythons or iguanas in a meaningful way.

“This cold snap, though it’s strong, it’s not long enough to do lasting damage,” Magill said. “What we need here in South Florida is three to four consecutive days of this kind of temperature.”