"This year, SHOT was the exact opposite: hopes for regulatory relief from President Donald Trump, tempered with regret at the end of—or at least a pause in—the remarkable sales run of the past eight years."
Good afternoon! Mostly cloudy and 39 degrees in Delmar. There is a west breeze at 10 mph. The skies will clear around 6 pm. It’s been a pretty gray, but I spent sometime playing with some code for the blog, got a haircut and some time cleaning and painting. Made some new maps and content for the blog, and finished fixing some minor bugs I discovered with the roll out of the ChartJS plugin I wrote for the blog. I would go out hiking, but it’s kind of cool and gray, and with the crusty nasty snow, it’s not good for hiking or even skiing. Tomorrow, I do plan get out hiking somewhere tough. Been saving a lot of miles on my truck, not going that much this winter.
The sun will set at 5:04 pm with dusk around 5:34 pm, which is 1 minutes and 18 seconds later than yesterday. Days are getting longer for sure, especially in the evening — although some sun would be nice for sunset. At sunset, look for mostly cloudy conditions and 36 degrees. There will be a west-southwest breeze at 7 mph.
Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 26 degrees at 6am. 10 degrees above normal. South wind 6 to 8 mph. In 2016, it got down to 25 degrees with periods of snow. The record low of -10 occurred back in 1925.
Waxing Crescent Moon tonight with 9% illuminated. The moon will set around 8:01 pm. The First Quarter Moon is next Saturday with partly cloudy skies expected. The Full “Snow” Moon is in 2 weeks. The sun will rise at 7:11 am with the first light at 6:41 am, which is 57 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 6 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 17 seconds over last night.
Tomorrow will have a slight chance of snow showers between 11am and 4pm. Partly sunny, with a high of 37 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees above normal. South wind 7 to 9 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had snow and a high of 38 degrees. The record high of 54 was set in 2002. 8.3 inches of snow fell back in 1990.
Finally decided to take action on the rust on my refrigerator in my apartment. I bought some primer and paint, and it seems like it is going to match close enough that my landlord will never know the refrigerator was painted. It’s coming out well and I only gotten primer on, it’s already looking very nice, almost restored to original conditions. Trying to do a very professional job, so even if it’s not perfect, it looks good without further inspection. The paint does stink though. The mildew problem I used to have in the kitchen — which is mostly gone after much concentrated bleach and lots of scrubbing — kind of did some damage to the finish. Figure it’s better painted then rusted.
Been working hard lately — a half hour a few times a week — to clean my apartment. I think I’m going to stay there for a few more years, and it’s better not to have it look so dirty and run down. The new vacuum cleaner and with some help from brush-in carpet cleaner, really is getting the stains out of the carpets and just reducing the dust load a lot. Little things, like dusting shelves make sure a big difference. No more cob webs either.. I occasionally have company over and it’s nice to have things looking nice.
Been wanting to move the USB port that powers my dash board camera and cellphone to a different place in my truck, hooked up to the same switch as the CB radio, but that has yet to happen. I did find the wire endings the other day, so I know where to splice in. I want to make sure I have better power source for the dash board camera, as sometimes I find I’ve been losing my dash camera recordings on backroads — and that’s where they are mos
In four weeks on February 25 the sun will be setting at 5:40 pm, which is 36 minutes later then today. In 2016 on that day, we had fog, rain, snow and temperatures between 58 and 33 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 37 and 20 degrees. The record high of 67 degrees was set back in 1976.
Looking ahead, Average High is 40 is in 5 weeks, Average High is 50 is in 2 months, April Fools Day is in 9 weeks and Arbor Day is in 3 months.
The Appalachian Region includes all of West Virginia and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Region is home to more than 25 million people and covers 420 counties and almost 205,000 square miles.
Many of the problems that Flint, MI faces are similar to the Town of Bethlehem with their Clapper Road water plant that draws water from the river (and to a lesser extent the Vly Creek Reservior). Sewage pollution and farm pollution put bacteria in water that has to be killed to keep people from getting sick.
Trihalomethanes are formed when water is dosed with chlorine gas to kill off bacteria in the water. Organic matter reacts with chlorine to produce trihalomethanes, a carcinogenic chemical that happens to also be mildly acidic -- which causes pipes to rust, just like when you apply bleach to metal. Rusting pipes releases lead and copper into the water, which makes the water an ugly brown color.
By adding caustic soda aka lye to water you can neutralize the acidity of water. The problem is that lye is relatively expensive to administer in water, so places like Flint decided to skip out on it, with awful consequences. Additionally, filtering water with sand and other materials can reduce the amount of biological material in the water, cutting the amount of chlorine gas needed to make the water biologically safe for drinking.
Increasing rates of poverty in McDowell County led U.S. President John F. Kennedy to remark in a speech in May 1963:
I don’t think any American can be satisfied to find in McDowell County, in West Virginia, 20 or 25 percent of the people of that county out of work, not for 6 weeks or 12 weeks, but for a year, 2, 3, or 4 years.[7]
While some hope for the McDowell mining economy had flourished during the energy crisis of the 1970s, in the next decade the county went from swift decline to collapse. Wildcat strikes in the Appalachian coal fields hindered producers’ ability to deliver to buyers. Non-unionized coal production in the western States provided tough competition. The county’s coal industry suffered yet again when a major source of demand, the United States steel industry, began its own decline due to competition with foreign steel makers, who employed newer and more efficient steel plants to produce high grade steel at lower prices.
| Year | Republican | Democrat |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 74.16% 4,614 | 22.97% 1,429 |
| 2012 | 63.98% 3,959 | 34.08% 2,109 |
| 2008 | 44.82% 2,882 | 53.34% 3,430 |
| 2004 | 37.84% 2,762 | 61.67% 4,501 |
| 2000 | 32.15% 2,348 | 66.34% 4,845 |
| 1996 | 18.90% 1,550 | 73.00% 5,989 |
| 1992 | 19.80% 1,942 | 71.80% 7,019 |
| 1988 | 25.40% 2,463 | 74.20% 7,204 |
| 1984 | 33.30% 4,284 | 66.30% 8,546 |
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 535 square miles (1,390 km2), of which 533 square miles (1,380 km2) is land and 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2) (0.3%) is water.[8] The county is roughly in the shape of a semi circle, with the border following the mountains around the county.
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1860 | 1,535 | — | |
| 1870 | 1,952 | 27.2% | |
| 1880 | 3,074 | 57.5% | |
| 1890 | 7,300 | 137.5% | |
| 1900 | 18,747 | 156.8% | |
| 1910 | 47,856 | 155.3% | |
| 1920 | 68,571 | 43.3% | |
| 1930 | 90,479 | 31.9% | |
| 1940 | 94,354 | 4.3% | |
| 1950 | 98,887 | 4.8% | |
| 1960 | 71,359 | −27.8% | |
| 1970 | 50,666 | −29.0% | |
| 1980 | 49,899 | −1.5% | |
| 1990 | 35,233 | −29.4% | |
| 2000 | 27,329 | −22.4% | |
| 2010 | 22,113 | −19.1% | |
| Est. 2015 | 19,835 | [9] | −10.3% |
Read more about McDowell County on Wikipedia: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/McDowell_County,_West_Virginia
In the New York Times 50 Years Into the War on Poverty, Hardship Hits Back:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/us/50-years-into-the-war-on-poverty-hardship-hits-back.html
Astronauts will wear the sleek suit as they rocket to the International Space Station aboard the Boeing Starliner next year. The bright blue onesie does away with the fishbowl helmet in favor of a hoodie secured with a pressurized zipper. The gloves work on touch screens. Even the booties got an upgrade from Reebok.