June 11, 2018 9:48 pm Update

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A common criticism of LED light bulbs is that many use capacitive droppers for limiting current with shitty power factors.πŸ’‘ They meter as using only a few watts but have a have a much higher level of apparent power draw which shows up on smart meters and increased fuel consumption at generating plants.🏭🏭🏭🏭

But the LED “high power factor” spotlight I bought at Walmart a few years back uses a switching power supply to limit current and has a pretty good 0.87 power factor, uses 11.3 watts, and 13.0 volt-amperes per my Kill a Watt Meter. This replaces a 60 watt warm white flood light and really is a energy efficient bulb.

Conservation Department Snowmobile Trail

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You know that this Snowmobile Trail Marker must be at least a half century old, because during the 1970 session of the legislature, Governor Nelson Rockefeller put forward his program bill that would re-organize the Health Department and Conservation Department into a Department of Ecology.

Governor Rockefeller's Department of Ecology was proposed as his advisers suggested he get out in front on environmental issue, as it was known that former Labor Lawyer and Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg was expected to be a formidable opponent during the 1970 election, especially with an anti-Nixon/anti-GOP wave starting to form in the country, as often happens during mid-terms.

The Department of Ecology program bill ultimately failed in the legislature, as Upstate Republicans feared eliminating the Conservation mandate as a prime focus of the Conservation Department. They thought a Department of Ecology wouldn't be as active at promoting and managing hunting and fishing, and would primarily be focused on urban pollution concerns.

Ultimately a compromise was reached and a Department of Environmental Conservation was created. The Conservation Department took on new responsibilities relating to pollution control, while the health department retained many of their traditional responsibilities.

Taken on Saturday June 9, 2018 at Wilcox Lake Wild Forest.

The burning monk, 1963

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The burning monk, 1963

"In June of 1963, Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk ThΓ­ch Quang Duc burned himself to death at a busy intersection in Saigon. He was attempting to show that to fight all forms of oppression on equal terms, Buddhism too, needed to have its martyrs. John F. Kennedy said in reference to a photograph of Duc on fire: β€œNo news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one”. Photographer Malcolm Browne captured the scene in Saigon for the Associated Press, and the stark black and white image quickly became an iconic visual of the turbulent 1960s."

June 11, 2018 Morning

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Good morning! Monday’s come back around again. Sigh. But it was a beautiful weekend up north and a nice morning today. 12 weeks until Labor Day, consider that to be your warning. Partly sunny and 61 degrees in Delmar, NY. There is a north-northeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 44 degrees.

Today will be mostly sunny 🌞 , with a high of 75 degrees at 4pm. Two degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 50 at 6pm. North wind around 6 mph becoming east in the afternoon. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 92 degrees. Compared to last year, this early summer has been pretty cool. The record high of 94 was set in 1947.

The sun will set at 8:33 pm with dusk around 9:08 pm, which is 31 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly clear skies and 67 degrees. The dew point will be 51 degrees. There will be a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 15 hours and 16 minutes of daytime, an increase of 37 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be mostly clear 🌞 , with a low of 51 degrees at 3am. Five degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 51 at 7pm. South wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2017, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 64 degrees. The record low of 38 occurred back in 1972.

I’m hoping the weekend will come fairly quickly and the forecast will remain nice. Might get some rain mid week, which is good because things are starting to get a bit dried out. 💦 Only two more weeks of session, including this week which makes me happy as I won’t have to dress up more for a while. That’s good because my blazers and shoes are getting a bit thread bare.

I am going to send out my updated lease to the landlord today, and I’ve updated the payment information for August. I figure this lock me into this still quite reasonable price for another year, and if I want I can reevaluate in summer 2019. 🏡 That seems like the distant future but it ain’t. Twenty twenty is just around the corner. I doubt I will see any more rent increases for a few years, as the landlord seems to only adjust the rent every five years. While I rent I figure I should get the cheapest place that meets my needs which is the place I’m in now.

On this day in 1963, Buddhist monk ThΓ­ch QuαΊ£ng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam. 💥The self-immolation would be captured on film and would go around the world. On the same day, John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that propsed equal access to public facilities, end segregation in education and guarantee federal protection for voting rights.

To further save power on my VMS clock display in my bedroom, 📺 I think I’m going to change the code so that the display is powered off on weekdays that are not holidays, during normal work hours and try to put the processor into a deep sleep. While this may only save a dozen or so watt hours each day, I figure everything watt hour of saved fossil energy is worth it.

This past weekend out camping and hiking with the bright blue skies I got the first sun tan of the year and a whole bunch more gray. 👴I guess it comes with the territory of getting old. 35 years, who would have thought you’d be going gray.

Looking ahead, there are 12 weeks until Labor Day 👨‍🏭 when the sun will be setting at 7:25 pm with dusk at 7:54 pm. On that day in 2017, we had rain, drizzle, heavy fog, shallow fog, patches of fog, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 58 and 51 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 77 degrees. We hit a record high of 100 back in 1953.

Get out, enjoy this beautiful early summer day if you can.😎 There is no guarantee that beautiful days like today will last for any length of time.