Muddier Section

Parts of Moose Club Way where pretty slick. Fun to go through, but also a little scary, because this a pretty remote part of the Adirondacks. There where a couple of moderately steep hills on the truck trail, that going up like this was a bit rough. You can understand from this picture, why the some of the Adirondack Truck Trails are still closed.

Taken on Saturday May 21, 2011 at Vanderwhacker Mountain Wild Forest.

Goats and Soda : NPR

What We Know About Coronavirus Mutations : Goats and Soda : NPR

This week, the question of mutation has been front and center in coverage of the coronavirus — from controversial claims about changes that make the virus more contagious to reassurances that any mutations are not yet consequential.

Here are some of the questions being raised — and what the specialists can (and can't yet) say to answer them.

Is the coronavirus mutating?

Researchers say the coronavirus is making small changes to itself as they would expect it to — at a relatively predictable and steady rate of around one to two changes per month.

"Viruses mutate naturally as part of their life cycle," says Ewan Harrison, scientific project manager for the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium. The coronavirus is no different.

When a virus infects a person, it enters their cells and makes copies of itself, which then circulate through the body or are transmitted — respiratory droplets is one method — to other humans.

Inevitably, viruses "make mistakes in their genomes" as they copy themselves, Harrison says. Those changes can accumulate and carry over to future copies of the virus. Mutations are akin to typos in text — most typos are nonevents, but some can change the meaning of a word or sentence. Likewise, many mutations will be dead ends with no effect on people who are infected. But some of these mutations in a virus may change how quickly it infects people and replicates, or what kind of damage it does to cells.

Bird

I've really gotten into bird watching lately.

Taken on Thursday May 7, 2020 at Nature.

At Croton Point, Problems Persist – The New York Times

At Croton Point, Problems Persist – The New York Times

THE 600 acres of Croton Point once formed one of the largest tidal marshes on the Hudson River. After 50 years as the site of an active county dump, however, the area is judged by environmentalists to be a health hazard. A Federal judge last month called the landfill, which was closed in 1986, an environmental time bomb.

The Great Hudson River Revival, a yearly fund-raising event for the environmental sloop Clearwater and the region's largest folk-music festival, has abandoned its usual riverfront location after a decade of holding the event at Croton Point Park. When this year's celebration of the river opens next weekend, it will be inland, at the Westchester Community College campus in Valhalla.

The festival was moved reluctantly, according to the executive director of the Clearwater organization. ''The facts point to a serious problem at Croton Point and a recognition of that problem by the state and Westchester County,'' John C. Mylod said. He explained that the move seemed to be the ''prudent thing to do'' after the landfill site was upgraded to a Class II hazardous-waste category last year by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.

This article is from 1986 but reminds how troubled Croton Point was when this was still an active landfill right on the river.