Weather

The US will bundle up for (yet another) polar vortex

Moving south can no longer save you from frigid temperatures. Following winter storms that devastated the eastern United States over the weekend, killing at least ten people, the vast majority of the United States is expected to see "life-threatening cold" this week.

Shiver me timbers

Frostbite-inducing temperatures are expected to blast most of the US as a series of winter storms sweep across the country in the coming days. As of Monday, wind chills near -60° F were recorded in areas of Minnesota, Montana, and the Dakotas, per the FOX Forecast Center.

• Temperatures in the contiguous 48 states are predicted to drop to 30–40 degrees below average for this time of year.

• The Mid-Atlantic is expected to be covered with several inches of snow and ice by tomorrow.

The Upper Midwest is set to see the coldest temperatures (around -10 to -50) while near zero temps will infiltrate states from Kansas to Maine. It could reach the teens in places as far south as Georgia and Texas.

Why is it so cold?

The spread of arctic air marks the tenth (and coldest) polar vortex to plunge into the US mainland, compared to the typical two or three seen during a normal winter season.

• The polar vortex weakens and disrupts the polar jet stream, causing it to become uneven and descend into the United States.

  • Meteorologists currently have no explanation for why the weather phenomena have occurred so frequently.

February is already the coldest month of the year for many states but with the coldest polar vortex of the year approaching, many areas are likely to see record lows. If you’d like to see what temperatures to expect the rest of the week, check out forecasts here.

The weather has taken its toll: Flooding in Kentucky and Tennesee brought on by the storm killed at least nine people, and according to Colorado authorities, eight people have died in fatal vehicle crashes since Valentine’s Day.

Food

Breakfast is getting more expensive (it’s not just eggs)

When did breakfast get so eggpensive? Breakfast is more popular than ever, yet price increases for once inexpensive and widely used essentials like coffee, orange juice, and eggs are robbing consumers of their favorite meal.

Breakfast is booming

Breakfast and brunch is booming at restaurants throughout the US. However, fast food chains and mom-and-pop shops are struggling to keep up with the demand, especially as prices for key breakfast items surge.

• According to Yelp, 6,421 breakfast and brunch establishments opened in the US last year, a 23% increase from 2019.

• Foot traffic to restaurants is most heavy during the morning hours, according to Circana, and breakfast makes up for over 20% of all restaurant visits.

Breakfast sandwiches are the most frequently ordered meal, and over 70% of them include eggs, Circana reported. Much like the demand for them, eggs, along with other items, have soared in price in recent weeks.

It’s getting eggspensive

But why has everything gotten so costly? Egg prices have reached a 45 year-high and your go-to morning drinks have taken a hit too:

• The avian flu has caused around 159 million birds to be culled, and last month, egg prices reached a record $4.95 a dozen as a consequence.

  • The H5N1 virus has also to humans through cow milk has also been confirmed. Watch a timeline of its contamination here.

• Florida's orange groves have been ravaged by citrus greening, a disease that kills orange trees, resulting in some of the worst harvests in nearly a century.

  • Since 2020, the average price of OJ concentrate at the grocery store has almost doubled.

• Late last year, coffee beans reached their highest price in 47 years due to poor growing conditions in Brazil and Vietnam, the world's top producers.

Restaurants have made adjustments: Waffle House, notoriously known for its cheap breakfast, put a temporary surcharge of $0.50 per egg in place, while others have started using egg substitutes or removed them from their menus entirely.

Science

Quantum teleportation has been achieved, scientists say

We’re officially one step closer to getting rid of DoorDash. Oxford researchers claimed that they’ve built a scalable quantum supercomputer capable of quantum teleportation, a massive breakthrough in the field and the world’s first achievement of its kind.

The researchers say it will allow the development of next-generation technology that will disrupt the industry and make it easier to create quantum supercomputers.

Digital superpower

While quantum computing has existed for decades, significant advances in the field have only recently allowed the technology to be used on a (somewhat) practical scale.

• However, a quantum computer would be impossible for most people to have since the computer would have to be huge, due to the immense amount of processing power needed.

How do these things work? By utilizing quantum mechanics, the next-gen computers swap out conventional bits (the "ones" and "zeros" that are used to store and transmit digital data) for quantum bits, or qubits, which simultaneously function as a one and a zero thanks to a phenomenon called superposition.

Using these high-tech computers, researchers successfully achieved quantum teleportation. The breakthrough could help solve the “scalability issue” that has riddled the quantum computing industry and inhibited the development of new quantum computers.

Quantum breakthrough

The researchers at Oxford successfully teleported logical gates, the basic components of computer algorithms, between two quantum computers that were six feet apart. This is a first for the history books, but how did they do it?

• The scientists generated a series of interactions between the computers using photons (aka light) rather than electrical impulses.

Why is this significant? According to Dougal Main, who led the study, previous attempts at quantum teleportation centered around “transferring quantum states between physically separated systems,” but in this study, the group of scientists used quantum teleportation to “create interaction between distant systems.”

Getting the computers to cooperate despite their physical distance showed that quantum information processing can be done using technology that’s already available, and be built and scaled later on.

It could revolutionize computers: The new quantum teleportation technique could create a “quantum internet”, and repurpose computer networks into instruments that can measure and test physics.

Grab Bag

China is facing a worsening marriage crisis

If you want to find a partner, China probably isn’t the place to go. Marriage registrations in China fell a record 21% last year, the biggest drop ever, as officials in the country attempt to incentivize young couples to have children.

Single life

Only 6.1 million couples registered for marriage in the nation of 1.4 billion people last year, the lowest since the government began tracking data in 1986. Many in China blame the high cost of child care and education as the reason for the decline in interest in marriage and falling birth rates.

• Restrictive regulations like the one-child policy and shifting social norms have also been cited as reasons for the demographic change.

In 2024, the overall number of marriages was less than half of those in 2013, and except for a resurgence in 2023, the decline in marriages has been a ten-year-long pattern.

The country is already facing an aging demographic: China is the world’s second-largest economy, and its growing elderly population and diminishing workforce prove a credible threat during a time of economic downturn.

• Approximately 22 percent of China's population is over 60.

  • In the next ten years, around 300 million people are expected to retire in the nation. That’s nearly the same population as the US.

Falling out of love: In November, Chinese officials directed local governments to try and fix declining birth rates and boost marriages through various methods like “love education” and financial incentives, but rates still fell.

Amazon workers are short-supplied amid a back-to-work mandate

Good luck finding your desk. Amazon workers are returning to the office after the company told 350,000 corporate employees to go full-time or get fired. But there’s one problem: many of them don’t have a place to work.

Short on supplies

The shortage comes after the e-commerce giant ordered workers to get their butts back to the office for five days a week starting in January. However, so many workers flooding back to the office left many locations without proper space for its employees, leading Amazon to delay the mandate at over 20 offices.

• According to reports, 18 of the company's locations in the San Francisco area is short at least 800 desks.

• A security guard at the Austin, Texas, branch reported that 2,000 people were competing for 900 parking spaces.

Many don’t have their team members in the same office as them and are struggling to find proper places to work and take calls. Amazon says it's working to establish seating assignments and fill offices with equipment, but has sent large swaths of workers back home until they can do so.

Fast Facts

Critter Construction: According to the Czech Republic's nature protection organization, beavers recently completed a proposed $1.3 million wetlands project "practically overnight" that had been put on hold for years due to land negotiations. 

Hidden Gem: Using X-ray and infrared images, conservators discovered a hidden painting of a woman beneath Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Mateu Fernandez de Soto.

Retail Rut: January saw a 0.9% decline in retail sales in the US, the biggest monthly decline since March 2023, according to the Commerce Department. It comes after a 0.7% increase in December.

Digital DJ: A military-grade robot named Phantom DJ'ed at a San Fransisco Club over the weekend. We must add it to the defense budget, whatever the cost.

Nuanced Name: Mexico threatened to take Google to court for altering its maps to display the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico.