Day: December 6, 2020

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Temporal Map

That qgis temporal (time) map I posted earlier this morning on the blog about positive Coronavirus cases is pretty neat.

https://www.facebook.com/andybarthur/posts/10101846691562549

But they are kind of a pain to make right now as the feature is very incomplete in QGIS:

  • No print layout design tools are available for export in qgis so you have to manually screenshot and paste the legend as an image and are limited in formatting options
  • No ability to create GIF animations directly from qgis, must export multiple images and create the GIF animation in GIMP
  • The shape file you make it from must use a date format field, it can’t process strings yet
  • You can’t do a linkage on the fly but instead do the linkage manually which leads to the creation of very large Shape files or GeoPackages due to repeated shapes in the file for each time period

Pollution from car tires is killing off salmon on US west coast, study finds | Environment | The Guardian

Pollution from car tires is killing off salmon on US west coast, study finds | Environment | The Guardian

In recent years, scientists have realized half or more of the coho salmon, also known as silver salmon, returning to streams in Washington state were dying before spawning. The salmon, which reach 2ft in length, are born in freshwater streams before making an epic journey out to sea where they live most of their adult lives. A small number then return to their original streams to lay eggs before dying.

Fears for a million livelihoods in Kenya and Tanzania as Mara River fish die out Read more The cause of the die-off has remained a mystery but a new study, published in Science, has seemingly found a culprit. When it rains, stormwater carries fragments of old car tires into nearby creeks and streams. The tires contain certain chemicals that prevent them breaking down but also prove deadly to the coho salmon.

No one who got Moderna’s vaccine in trial developed severe COVID-19 | Science | AAAS

β€˜Absolutely remarkable’: No one who got Moderna’s vaccine in trial developed severe COVID-19 | Science | AAAS

Continuing the spate of stunning news about COVID-19 vaccines, the biotech company Moderna announced the final results of the 30,000-person efficacy trial for its candidate in a press release today: Only 11 people who received two doses of the vaccine developed COVID-19 symptoms after being infected with the pandemic coronavirus, versus 185 symptomatic cases in a placebo group. That is an efficacy of 94.1%, the company says, far above what many vaccine scientists were expecting just a few weeks ago.

More impressive still, Moderna’s candidate had 100% efficacy against severe disease. There were zero such COVID-19 cases among those vaccinated, but 30 in the placebo group. The company today plans to file a request for emergency use authorization (EUA) for its vaccine with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is also seeking a similar green light from the European Medicines Agency.

When might the world exceed 1.5C and 2C of global warming? | Carbon Brief

Analysis: When might the world exceed 1.5C and 2C of global warming? | Carbon Brief

Our analysis shows that:

The world will likely exceed 1.5C between 2026 and 2042 in scenarios where emissions are not rapidly reduced, with a central estimate of between 2030 and 2032.

The 2C threshold will likely be exceeded between 2034 and 2052 in the highest emissions scenario, with a median year of 2043.

In a scenario of modest mitigation –where emissions remain close to current levels – the 2C threshold would be exceeded between 2038 and 2072, with a median of 2052.

December 6, 2020 Morning

Good morning! Happy First Sunday of Advent ✝️! Probably a lot of people are watching them light the advent candles πŸ•― at online church β›ͺ this morning. Four weeks to Latest Sunrise of the Winter πŸŒ„οΈ. Happens in January believe it or not. Mostly cloudy and 27 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ Breezy, ️20 mph breeze from the northwest 🌬 with gusts up to 31 mph πŸ’¨πŸ’¨πŸ’¨. The current wind chill is 14. Haven’t seen it talked wind chill in a while. Things will start to thaw out at around noontime. 🌑️

Kind of a blustery cold morning start to Sunday. πŸŒ… I was hoping for more sun this morning but that’s nowhere to be found. I am hoping to maybe go to Five Rivers this afternoon 🐸 and then I’ll have to see if my parents are having visitors or I’ll go to the laundromat. 🚿 I haven’t showered since Wednesday so I probably should do that and wash my sheets and clothes πŸ‘š at the laundromat.

Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 33 degrees at 1pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 23rd. Breezy, with a northwest wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 34 degrees. The record high of 68 was set in 2001. 12.5 inches of snow fell back in 2003.❄

Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:48 am with sun having an altitude of 24.8Β° from the due south horizon (-46Β° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour πŸ… starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (232Β°). πŸ“Έ The sunset is in the west-southwest (240Β°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 23 seconds with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 6 seconds earlier than yesterday. πŸŒ‡ The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies πŸŒƒ and temperatures around 32 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 15 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 10 minutes of daytime, a decrease of one minute and 3 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy πŸŒƒ, with a low of 23 degrees at 5am. Two degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 10th. Maximum wind chill around 16 at 12am; Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 9 degrees. The record low of -7 occurred back in 1901.

Yesterday I was working on some electronics projects. πŸ”¬ I was using perf board but I think I’m going to just use wire on solderless breadboard with short solid wire jumpers going forward.πŸ”— In my opinion that is much more flexible, quicker to build and easy to modify or upgrade and you don’t have to worry about accidentally bridging pins or solder drying out. πŸ‘¨πŸ»β€πŸ­ And it can be made to be quite pretty. The trick though is to use solid copper wire that doesn’t flex easily and seats well into the breadboard.

25 days remain until the end of the year. ⏳ I hope you’ve worked to maximize this year to the best of your ability. I know a lot of people had complaints about the year that was but I think it was a fun year. 😁 I mean the markets are doing well πŸ’°and I spent something like two months camping in the woods β›Ί doing remote work. Not sure what next year will be like but I think we are getting closer to normal.

Today in 1902, a coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, kills 362 workers. πŸ’₯And in 1953, Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita. πŸ’Œ More uplifting is Adrian Kantrowitz performs the first human heart transplant in the United States in 1967.πŸ’“

Looking ahead, there are 4 weeks until Latest Sunrise of the Winter πŸŒ„οΈ when the sun will be setting at 4:34 pm with dusk at 5:06 pm. On that day in 2020, we had mostly cloudy, mild, rain showers and temperatures between 47 and 39 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 31 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 1913.

 Top Of The Falls

Canadians buzz through Buffalo as a way to beat border closure | wgrz.com

Canadians buzz through Buffalo as a way to beat border closure | wgrz.com

As a solution, Great Lakes Helicopter is offering flights across the border with up to three passengers for the 35 minute trip to Buffalo.

When they land their passengers will find their vehicles, packed with whatever else they wanted to bring, waiting for them... having been sent over on car carriers operated by GRM Transportation.

Once the passengers land they can get into their cars and drive to their destination.