News on Youtube Dec 31 2018

I'm going to tell you what it's like to visit Washington, DC during January.

Hello!

Welcome to Trip Hacks DC.

My name is Rob.

I'm a tour guide here in the nation's capital.

If you're coming to Washington, DC and you're looking for the best tips, tricks and hacks

for exploring the city, make sure to subscribe to this channel, and hit the bell notification

icon so you don't miss any new videos.

And if you're interested in signing up for a Trip Hacks DC tour, head on over to www.triphacksdc.com

afterwards, to see the tours that I offer.

This video is part of my month by month series, where I tell you what it's like to visit Washington,

DC each month of the year, including information about the weather, things to do, special events,

and other month specific information.

If you have visited Washington, DC during January before, leave a comment on this video

and let everyone know whether you thought it was a good month to visit.

Otherwise, let's get started....

January, in general, is one of the slowest months of the year for tourism.

This doesn't mean it's a bad month to come and in fact you can totally use this to your

advantage, capitalizing on the small crowds at the museums and other big sites.

Washington, DC has four seasons, and January is squarely in the middle of winter.

It is the coldest month of the year, with average daily high temperatures at 45 degrees

and average daily low temperatures at 25 degrees.

Now whether you think that's frigid or not, depends entirely on who you are and where

you're coming from.

45 degrees is well above freezing but remember that this is the average high, which means

it could very well be colder during your trip.

I personally find a typical January day to be perfectly tolerable and that is why I run

tours year-round.

However a lot of tour companies actually take the entire month of January off; not because

it's too cold, but because there just isn't enough business.

January is also the month when it is most likely to snow.

I'm not going to go in-depth into snow in this video, but if you're curious about the

topic, I have an entire video about snow that I will link to down in the video description.

To pack for a January trip you're going to want to bring a coat.

This is what my coat looks like.

You'll also want to bring a hat, kind of like this one.

Gloves are a good idea too.

I like these simple gloves that you can easily stuff into your pocket when you don't need

them.

People ask me all the time if they need to bring boots, and my advice is to wear boots

if you like to wear boots; but otherwise I don't think it's a requirement.

In fact I don't even own boots, and I get through DC winters just fine.

Just keep in mind that you will probably do a lot more walking during your trip than you're

used to, and boots are often not very comfortable for that.

If you're coming to DC and hoping to see some late holiday decorations, I hate to break

it to you, but you're too late.

Unlike in some European cities where the holiday decorations might stay up well into January,

ours pretty much come down on January 1st.

So if you're really hoping to see holiday sites, plan your trip for December instead.

January is a low month for restaurants so it's easy to get reservations, even at the

most popular ones.

However this is also when restaurants do their winter restaurant week, and I will leave information

about that down in the video description.

If you're coming during restaurant week, just make sure to plan ahead because reservations

can be surprisingly tough.

Since crowds are smaller than during the rest of the year, January is a great time to do

some of our indoor activities.

We have plenty of free museums around town and I will leave a link to a video in the

description where I give some of my best museum tips.

You might also want to check out a play at the Kennedy Center, or at least one of their

daily free performances.

If you're into sports, the Wizards and Capitals regular season will be happening.

Both of those teams play at the Capital One Arena and I have an entire video on sports,

if you're curious.

Or if you're an athlete yourself, there are a bunch of ice skating rinks set up around

town, which are really fun during winter.

The most notable rink is on the National Mall, across the street from the National Archives

and next to the National Gallery of Art.

But there are also rinks in Georgetown, the Wharf, and Navy Yard neighborhoods.

There are two government holidays in January that you should know about.

New Years is on January 1st and all government employees and school kids get a day off, but

restaurants, museums and other tourist sites will be open.

The other holiday is Martin Luther King Jr.

Day which is held on a Monday and actually a great opportunity for a weekend trip.

And every 4 years the Presidential Inauguration is held on January 20th.

My advice regarding inaugurations is unless you specifically want to see it, don't come

during that week.

Instead plan your trip for a little earlier in them month or a little later in the month.

It's really only inauguration day plus a couple days before and a couple days after that things

are a little crazy; but the rest of January, perfectly fine.

And that's it!

Thank you for watching this video.

If you found it helpful you can subscribe to this channel by clicking on the Trip Hacks

DC logo which is popping up right now at the bottom of the screen.

And if you're coming to DC and want to sign up for a Trip Hacks DC tour you can click

on the Capitol dome on the left side of my head, that'll send you over to www.triphacksdc.com

where you can see all of the tours that I offer.

Enjoy your trip!

For more infomation >> Tips for Visiting Washington DC in January - Duration: 5:04.

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Negotiations at an impasse in shutdown's second week - Duration: 2:57.

For more infomation >> Negotiations at an impasse in shutdown's second week - Duration: 2:57.

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Deepfakes: How a new technology is being used to put women's faces on porn stars' bodies - Duration: 3:07.

For more infomation >> Deepfakes: How a new technology is being used to put women's faces on porn stars' bodies - Duration: 3:07.

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ROBERT MUELLER ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT TO BLOW UP WASHINGTON, IT'S ALL OVER - Duration: 10:59.

ROBERT MUELLER ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT TO BLOW UP WASHINGTON,IT'S ALL OVER

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office appears to have responded to a foreign company's

bid to get the Supreme Court to step into a fight over a grand jury subpoena served

on the firm.

Most details of the case remain under seal at the Supreme Court since the company asked

for an emergency stay last week, but an entry in the high court's docket indicates a response

was filed Friday, three days ahead of the Monday deadline set by the court.

The filing was accompanied by an application to put the filing under seal, the Supreme

Court docket says.

The docket entry doesn't indicate Mueller's office is involved in the legal fight.

Indeed, there's not even a mention in the Supreme Court's public records that the

U.S.

Government or the Justice Department is involved in the case.

Friday's filing was likely submitted by Solicitor General Noel Francisco's office,

which handles nearly all Supreme Court briefs for the U.S. government.

When a federal appeals court issued a ruling last week turning down the company's effort

to quash the subpoena, the judges made public some details about the dispute.

The D.C. Circuit order revealed that the firm involved is owned by a foreign government

and was held in contempt by a district court judge who rejected the firm's arguments

that its governmental ownership makes it immune from a grand jury subpoena.

The appeals court also rejected claims that the firm should be excused from responding

to the subpoena because answering the request would violate the foreign country's laws.

The connection between the legal battle and Mueller's ongoing investigation of ties

between the Trump campaign and Russia is murky, but a POLITICO reporter stationed in the D.C.

Circuit clerk's office in October heard a visitor ask for a copy of a filing by the

special counsel just hours after a sealed pleading was submitted in the appeal.

A D.C. Circuit judge who formerly worked in the White House as an associate counsel to

President Donald Trump also recused himself from the dispute, court records show.

A spokesman for Mueller's office declined to comment on the development at the high

court Friday.

If the Supreme Court decides not to step into the dispute, the details of the fight could

remain and the identity of the company and country involved could remain hidden from

public view.

But if the justices decide to grant some relief to the company or hear the case on the high

court's regular docket, some additional details of the battle could surface, since

the Supreme Court rarely entertains cases

on

an

entirely

secret basis.

For more infomation >> ROBERT MUELLER ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT TO BLOW UP WASHINGTON, IT'S ALL OVER - Duration: 10:59.

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Washington May Ring In New Year With Partial Gov't Shutdown - Duration: 1:50.

For more infomation >> Washington May Ring In New Year With Partial Gov't Shutdown - Duration: 1:50.

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Washington may become first state to legalize human composting NY Daily News - Duration: 3:51.

Washington may become first state to legalize human composting NY Daily News

Washington may become the first state to legalize human composting — which would give families a third option in addition to burial or cremation after their relatives die.

In the process — also called recomposition, — bodies are placed in a vessel which speeds up decomposition and turned into a soil which can be returned to families, reported.

We really only have two easily accessible options in the U.S. — cremation and burial, said Katrina Spade, a 41 year old Seattle based designer and architect. And the question is: Why do we only have two options, and what would it look like if we had a dozen?

Democratic Sen. Jamie Pedersen is sponsoring a bill that would expand options for disposing human remains. If the bill is passed, it would take place May 1, 2020.

The proposed Washington bill would also allow alkaline hydrolysis — where bodies are dissolved in water and potassium hydroxide in a pressurized chamber until only bone and a sterilized liquid remains — according to .

If passed, the bill would make Washington the 17th state to allow alkaline hydrolysis.

During recomposition, human remains wrapped in a shroud that have not been embalmed are placed into a 5 foot by 10 foot cylindrical vessel. They are set on top of a bed of organic material — including alfalfa, straw, and wood chips — and air is pulled into the container periodically to raise microbial activity — which speeds up decomposition.

When kept at 131 degrees Farenheit for 72 hours consecutively because of naturally occuring microbes, pathogens are destroyed. This is what keeps the human composting process safe.

Remains are then placed in a cubic yard of compost that can be used to grow new plants. Families may want to use the compost to either grow new plants on their own property, or use it on conservation lands.

Spade began working on the idea when she was completing her masters in architecture at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She felt a connection to death and its aftermath had been taken away by the funeral industry. She worked with researchers at Western Carolina University and University of Washington to turn the process she called recomposition into reality.

Spade began a pilot program called Recompose through Washington State University in 2017 to see her idea become reality.

The advantage that I see as a soil scientist and an environmental scientist is that it is relatively low in resource use and it also creates this soil like or compost like product that helps to store carbon, said Lynne Carpenter Boggs, associate professor sustainable and organic agriculture at Washington State.

Carpenter Boggs worked with Spade on a five month program that used six donor bodies in a controlled environment to research the safety of the process, and found human composting to be safe.

Human composting would cost less than a traditional burial. The National Funeral Directors Association reported traditional burials cost more than dollar 7,000 on average in 2017, as reported by NBC. Recompost, however, aims to charge dollar 5,500.

Scientists have pushed for alternative methods of disposing of human remains for environmental reasons.

Each year, the U.S. uses embalming fluid that would fill 6 Olympic sized swimming pools, according to the Green Burial Council.

Additionally, fossil fuels from cremation in North America could drive a person halfway to the sun each year.

Carpenter Boggs said human compost adds nutrients to soil, which can help it absorb water better and lessen erosion.

Programs around the world have aimed to make human burials more environmentally.

Swedish based company offers burial methods that help mimics natures way of decomposition to integrate remains in the soil within a year, and offers green cremation — which creates less impact on the environment than a traditional cremation.

Ramsey Creek Preserve in South Carolina is a green cemetery and conservation burial ground. Graves are hand dug and bodies are preserved with dry ice and buried in simple coffins or just shrouds in an effort to let bodies decompose more naturally and lessen environmental impact.