Cities worldwide lit up their landmarks as the clocks struck midnight, January 1. One of the most remarkable fireworks displays was in the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates has the world’s tallest building, biggest shopping mall and now the Guinness world record for largest fireworks display. The previous record, 77,000 fireworks in just over an hour. The new one, 500,000 and who cares how long it took.

 

Of course, some folks stayed in on New Year, some were stuck inside or inside an airport due to winter weather. Some were stuck in a ship. A group of scientists, journalists and tourists were trapped by sea ice on a holiday cruise to Antarctica. They have plenty of food and supplies during the ten days they were stranded, but they had to be rescued by helicopter when another ship that tried to help also got stuck in ice. How does that happen?

 

You’d think that because this is a glacial environment, sea ice would move in a glacial pace. Not the case. Roughs of ice move quickly, rushed over the sea by wind. They can expand and grow thicker, rise and fall with the waves beneath them and blizzard conditions common to Antarctica even in summer. Don’t help.

 

You might remember this scene from Minnesota, when wind blew ice ashore from Mille Lacs Lake, climbing and cracking in the doors and window. Think of the same principle and a massive frigid sea. And you can see how a Russian research vessel en route to the Antarctic got trapped. How Ernest Shackleton in ‘The Endurance’ were surrounded and how that ship was eventually crushed. Even animals used to these conditions like the trapped whales dramatized in last year’s movie ‘Big Miracle’ are vulnerable.

 

So what does it take to get through the ice and rescue whales, cruise ships or anything else that get stranded? Wait. Sea ice as thick as ten feet can be broken and the sloping holes of some icebreakers are designed to actually wedge up on top of the ice, so the heavy ship can crush down on it. The bows are also designed to then move the cracked ice to the side, plowing a path that other ships can follow, a crusty road to open water out of frozen maize.

 

As many of you are getting back into the swing of school today, the US Congress is getting back in session this week, getting back into the swing of making laws. The Republican Party controls the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party controls the Senate. And for most lawmakers, this is an election year. So there are a lot of challenges ahead on their to-do list. 

 

The president’s vacation is over. He faces a colder reality now - Congress. ‘If you`re a glass half full kind of person, like I am, they are the number one most unproductive Congress in modern history.’ Get ready for possible deja vu.

 

‘I wish I had a magic want to say, I know things will be better.’

 

This year Congress has a full plate - right off the bat, a potentially easy one for the Senate, confirming Janet Ellen as the first woman to head the Federal Reserve. But next, a real battle over long-term unemployment benefits, both sides arguing Sunday. Even before vacation was over, President Obama pressed this weekend to extend the payments.

 

‘With regard to unemployment insurance, I’ve always said that I’m not opposed to unemployment insurance, I’m opposed to having it without paying for it.’

 

‘We have never offset emergency spending. This foolishness. We have people who are desperate. They’ve been out of work for, some, as much as two years.’

 

On January 15, a major deadline to fund the government: a deal was reached last year, but it needs to be finalized. 

 

As early as February, a deadline to raise the debt ceiling again, with both sides already dug in.

 

‘I think that it will be harmful not just for the economy, but I think it will be harmful politically, if republican choose 2014 as a year to threaten defaults again on the debt limit.’

 

And an even heavier lift, for a deal on immigration reform, which has escaped Congress for years. ‘It can’t be my way or the highway on such a big issue’;

 

not to mention, continue by Republicans to change Obama care. ‘This has been a failed launch, a flawed law and it needs real change.’

 

Don`t hold your breath for all of this to be crossed off the list. According to a CNN/ORC poll released last year, two thirds of Americans called Congress ‘the Worst Ever’. And the midterm elections will suck up much desire this year to compromise. ‘These are not likely to be times of large fruitful legislative harvest.’