Natural rubber is a uniquely tough, flexible and highly waterproof material. It puts tyres on our vehicles, soles on our shoes, it makes seals for engines and refrigerators, insulates wires and other electrical components. It is used in condoms and clothing, sports balls and the humble elastic bands. Over the past year it has played a pivotal role in the pandemic in personal protective equipment worn by doctors and nurses around the world.
In fact, rubber is deemed to be a commodity of such global importance that it is included on the EU's list of critical raw materials.
Unfortunately, there are signs the world might be running out of natural rubber. Disease, climate change and plunging global prices have put the world's rubber supplies into jeopardy. It has led scientists to search for a solution before it's too late.
There are 38 counties in New York that operate without charters, however only 16 of them still use Boards of Supervisors as their law-making body, consisting of the elected supervisors of their towns and cities, using weighted votes. A local example would be Saratoga County.
Some counties without charters have county legislatures — 22 in total. Clinton County for example has a County Legislature based on “Areas” the term they use for districts locally. While they have an elected County Legislature, they do not have a County Charter or an County Executive.
I am a big fan of TableauScraper, which is super helpful for government agencies, namely the NYS Department of Health, I’m speaking to you, that wants to appear transparent but not really and make it difficult to download their data. But with TableauScraper it’s pretty easy to get their data. I use the TableauScraper prompt.py script to download the Tableau, prompt me for the table I want to select, then added a few line to dump the Panda into a CSV file. I won’t say I rewrote the book on this one, but it works for my purposes.
Good morning! Happy 7 PM Sunset ! The clocks have moved forward one hour, at least on your computer and anywhere else you’ve changed them. Two weeks to Worm Moon . Partly sunny and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. . Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 4 pm.
Always the first day of daylight savings time the time goes by quickly, as to be expected. Nice sunny morning, but breezy and kind of cool. I should probably go for a hike before it gets too frigid this afternoon with the wind picking up and then maybe some precipitation as the front comes roaring through. It might have been a nice day had I decided to go north, although yesterday was fun between exploring the Hollyhock Sanctuary for the first time, and then to Papscanee Island. I ran into an avid birder down there and he took me on quite the bird hike. Then I spent some time down by the river and then went to Aldi’s. There is a few things that I couldn’t get a Aldi’s or forgot, like coffee and razors for shaving, so I might end up going to Wally World later on as probably having coffee with the time change is good.
Today will be scattered rain and snow showers between noon and 3pm, then scattered snow showers after 3pm. Partly sunny , with a high of 39 degrees at 12pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 3rd. Windy, with a northwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 23 to 28 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 49 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1946. 17 inches of snow fell back in 2017.
Heading out to my parents house later for Sunday dinner. They’re doing corn beef and cabbage for Saint Patricks Day. I do want to stop at the store and get coffee. I was thinking about hiking Blodgett Hill this afternoon, but I am thinking that might be very frigid with the wind.
Solar noon is at 1:05 pm with sun having an altitude of 45° from the due south horizon (-25.8° vs. 6/21). Halfway to the zenith, although unless you live south of the Tropic of Capricorn you’ll never see the sun up that high in the sky. Seventy is about as high as we get. A six foot person will cast a 6 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour starts at 6:24 pm with the sun in the west (261°). The sunset is in the west (268°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:01 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:28 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent Moon in the west (262°) at an altitude of 10° from the horizon, 249,719 miles away. The best time to look at the stars is after 8:02 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies and temperatures around 28 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 14. Breezy, 24 mph breeze from the northwest with gusts up to 44mph. Today will have 11 hours and 52 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy , with a low of 10 degrees at 6am. A very chilly night for mid-November, roughly 15 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -5 at 6am; Blustery, with a northwest wind 17 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of 1 occurred back in 1993.
Today in 1900, the Gold Standard Act is ratified,placing United States currency on the gold standard. 30 years later, they would realize that was a bad idea during the Great Depression, because it meant that they couldn’t stimulate the economy by printing money and forcing banks to loan more money. Then, eventually they fully abandoned gold convertibility in the 1970s, because the world economy had grown far larger then the world’s gold supply. It seems kind of silly these days to build an economy around a pretty but relatively useless soft and shiny metal, although it does have some value as a coating for good electrical conductivity in things that need to be super conductors.
Only 6 days remain until the first day of calendar spring! Today and certainly Monday won’t feel like spring, but the days will certainly have more daylight in the evenings. Next Saturday, the sun will be setting at 7:08 pm with dusk at 7:37 pm. On that day in 2020, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 46 and 28 degrees. Which is normal for this time of year. We hit a record high of 78 back in 1921.
! The clocks have moved forward one hour, at least on your computer and anywhere else you’ve changed them. Two weeks to Worm Moon 
. Partly sunny and 34 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a west-northwest breeze at 9 mph. 
. Temperatures will drop below freezing at around 4 pm. 
as to be expected. Nice sunny morning, but breezy and kind of cool. I should probably go for a hike before it gets too frigid this afternoon with the wind picking up and then maybe some precipitation as the front comes roaring through. It might have been a nice day had I decided to go north, although yesterday was fun between exploring the Hollyhock Sanctuary for the first time, 
and then to Papscanee Island. I ran into an avid birder down there and he took me on quite the bird hike. Then I spent some time down by the river 
and then went to Aldi’s. 
There is a few things that I couldn’t get a Aldi’s or forgot, like coffee and razors for shaving, so I might end up going to Wally World later on as probably having coffee with the time change is good.
, with a high of 39 degrees at 12pm. Four degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around March 3rd. Windy, with a northwest wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 23 to 28 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 49 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Total daytime snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 46 degrees. The record high of 75 was set in 1946. 17 inches of snow fell back in 2017.
They’re doing corn beef and cabbage for Saint Patricks Day. I do want to stop at the store and get coffee. 
I was thinking about hiking Blodgett Hill this afternoon, but I am thinking that might be very frigid with the wind. 
starts at 6:24 pm with the sun in the west (261°). 
The sunset is in the west (268°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:01 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 54 seconds with dusk around 7:28 pm, which is one minute and 11 seconds later than yesterday. 
Moon in the west (262°) at an altitude of 10° from the horizon, 249,719 miles away. 
The best time to look at the stars is after 8:02 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 
and temperatures around 28 degrees. The wind chill around sunset will be 14. 
from the northwest with gusts up to 44mph. Today will have 11 hours and 52 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 55 seconds over yesterday. 
, with a low of 10 degrees at 6am. A very chilly night for mid-November, roughly 15 degrees below normal. Maximum wind chill around -5 at 6am; Blustery, with a northwest wind 17 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 39 mph. In 2020, we had cloudy skies in the evening, which became clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 27 degrees. The record low of 1 occurred back in 1993. 
placing United States currency on the gold standard. 
30 years later, they would realize that was a bad idea during the Great Depression, because it meant that they couldn’t stimulate the economy by printing money and forcing banks to loan more money. 
Then, eventually they fully abandoned gold convertibility in the 1970s, because the world economy had grown far larger then the world’s gold supply. It seems kind of silly these days to build an economy around a pretty but relatively useless soft and shiny metal, although it does have some value as a coating for good electrical conductivity in things that need to be super conductors. 
Only 6 days remain until the first day of calendar spring!