NPR

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Fewer Births, More Deaths And Immigration Stunt U.S. Population Growth : NPR

The annual population growth rate of the United States over the past year continued a decades-long decline, dropping to its lowest level in the past century.

According to newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. population grew by 1,552,022 since 2018, an increase of one-half of one percent.

That rate of growth is slower than during the Great Depression of the 1930s, a period which had until the past decade marked the smallest expansion of the U.S. population since the overall number of inhabitants briefly dropped in 1918

 

It seems a bit odd to see Albany’s skyline without the ANSWERS smoke-stack

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It seems a bit odd to see Albany’s skyline without the ANSWERS smoke-stack … 🏭

Forty years the dirty old and trash burning plants smoke stack remained a fixture of the skyline, a tailpipe of a crude mass-burn garbage machine and later oil-burning factory. It might have been an improvement over the previous heavy-oil burning plant, but hardly was a clean air plant, with emissions equipment limited to the electrostatic precipator and a “high burn temperature” of the millions of tons of heavy, residual fuel oil and shredded garbage. It had minimal pollution equipment that was hardly designed to screen out lead (from solder from burned television sets and scraps of painted wood), polyvinyl chloride packaging and discarded appliances, sulfur-rich industrial wastes and furniture or a dozen other things that you probably shouldn’t burn in mass quantities downtown with minimal pollution controls. You can definitely raise a toast to the end of this terrible dirty era in Capital Region’s history, even if the plant hadn’t burned garbage in 30 years, and hadn’t burned oil in 15 years.

Winter Time.

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ο»ΏWinter is a long cold time here in the frigid Northeastern United States. After you few years spent in the winter here, you can see why people are moving out of New York left and right – it’s the winters plus the unfriendly enforcement-first culture that dominates politics. Many cold blustery days, road salt encrusting everything, high heating bills, and slippery sidewalks for months on end. Fortunately, climate change has made the winters a bit less severe but they aren’t going away tomorrow.

Cold Road

I plan to tough it through another winter. I have warm gear, and I don’t mind winter camping, but the snow makes it hard to be back to the remote campsites I like to camp in the winter. Colder temperatures are tough on all the gear, and the the many gray and short days of winter aren’t much fun. It’s not too bad in the sense that it’s often one of the busiest times of year at work for me, so I can focus on the long days at work, and then relax on the weekends at home, just going for short walks down to the library or other places.

Cold

Staying close to home, I tend to save more money in the winter then the summer, despite the higher heating bills. I try to get keep the heat down low in the winter, so it really only adds $40-50 to my utility bills, which is easily offset by not taking trips and burning through gasoline, food and supplies. I try to live fairly modestly in the winter, so I can have enough money saved up for trips come the summer. Nothing beats a hot weekend out at the potholers or other Adirondack swimming hole.

Cold Afternoon

The cold and blowing snow will certainly come to an end. They’ll stop spreading salt on the roads, the ice will melt. And maybe it will it be an early spring. One can hope.

It seems summer has all but bit the bucket, despite the muggy weather tonight

QGIS Python API – How to Export a Map

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Here is the Python code I use with QGIS 3.0 to export to an image from a layout you have previously set up and saved in your project.

        layout = QgsProject.instance().layoutManager().layoutByName("YourLayoutName")
        export = QgsLayoutExporter(layout)
        export.exportToImage("YourPath/YourFilename"+".jpg", QgsLayoutExporter.ImageExportSettings())

For a PDF export you would use:

        layout = QgsProject.instance().layoutManager().layoutByName("YourLayoutName")
        export = QgsLayoutExporter(layout)
        export.exportToPdf("YourPath/YourFilename"+".pdf", QgsLayoutExporter.PdfExportSettings())

The API is a bit confusing, and some things are broken out of the box in QGIS 3.0 but it’s gotten better with subsequent revisions. QGISLayoutExporter API Documentation. I suggest updating your version of QGIS to the latest stable version, which as of now is QGIS 3.4.3 but may be newer depending on when you find this webpage.

Warmth