Goats and Soda : NPR

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What’s The Risk Of Catching COVID-19 On A Plane? And Do Masks Cut It? : Goats and Soda : NPR

Freedman looked at all Emirates flights from Dubai to Hong Kong between June 16 and July 5. What he found is quite telling. During those three weeks, Emirates had five flights with seven or more infected passengers on each flight, for a total of 58 coronavirus-positive passengers flying on eight-hour trips. And yet, nobody else on the planes — none of the other 1,500 to 2,000 passengers — picked up the virus, Freedman and his colleague report in the Journal of Travel Medicine.

Masks work quite well even when you are on a plane (or bus or subway) for multiple hours with COVID-19 positive individuals. 

How the Nazi Concentration Camps Worked | The New Yorker

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How the Nazi Concentration Camps Worked | The New Yorker

Hitler’s Germany as a highly regimented dictatorship, in practice Nazi rule was chaotic and improvisatory. Rival power bases in the Party and the German state competed to carry out what they believed to be Hitler’s wishes. This system of “working towards the Fuhrer,” as it was called by Hitler’s biographer Ian Kershaw, was clearly in evidence when it came to the concentration camps. The K.L. system, during its twelve years of existence, included twenty-seven main camps and more than a thousand subcamps. At its peak, in early 1945, it housed more than seven hundred thousand inmates. In addition to being a major penal and economic institution, it was a central symbol of Hitler’s rule. Yet Hitler plays almost no role in Wachsmann’s book, and Wachsmann writes that Hitler was never seen to visit a camp. It was Heinrich Himmler, the head of the S.S., who was in charge of the camp system, and its growth was due in part to his ambition to make the S.S. the most powerful force in Germany.

October 20, 2020 Night

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Good evening! Misty 🌫 and 56 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☔ There is a north breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 55 degrees. The skies will clear tomorrow around 10 am.

Not a half bad evening 🌃, went for my evening walk 🚶🏻 and it wasn’t bad despite the mist and fog. 🌫 Worked fairly late in the office 🏢 but I was home early enough for my walk. I really don’t mind working downtown although for a few seconds I thought I might have missed the 7:30 pm bus 🚍 home but it worked out fine.

So oddly quiet downtown at 7:30 catching the bus home. 🚏 Albany has long been a a 9-5 city but with the bars still all shut and the hotels shuttered 🏩 everything is so dead downtown but I guess the same can be said mid day too. There is a lot of talk about reopening state offices soon 🏢 but I just don’t see it happening with the pandemic ramping back up. I’m sure you saw that article I shared earlier about Coronavirus being widespread in Connecticut and New Jersey now – its getting bad in parts of Southern Tier New York again too.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers. Patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 52 degrees at 3am. 14 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 16th. Maximum dew point of 55 at 10pm. North wind around 6 mph becoming calm after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had patches of fog in the evening, which became mist by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 17 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight will have a Waxing Crescent 🌒 Moon with 23% illuminated. The Blue 🌝 Moon is on Saturday, October 31. The darkest hour is at 12:41 am, followed by dawn at 6:47 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:16 am in the east-southeast (104°) and last for 2 minutes and 59 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 The golden hour ends at 7:54 am with sun in the east-southeast (110°). Tonight will have 13 hours and 11 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 44 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of showers between 11am and noon, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, partly sunny , with a high of 73 degrees at 3pm. 15 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 15th. Maximum dew point of 62 at 2pm. South wind 6 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning, which became light rain by afternoon. The high last year was 60 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 1979. 0.2 inches of snow fell back in 1926.❄

Upgraded my laptop to Ubuntu 20.04, which is necessary as they are no longer supporting 18.04. 💻 The long term support versions of Ubuntu are good for 2 1/2 years of updates but eventually you need to update to the new version 📂. Unfortunately I’m having problems with getting the sound working but I’ll figure that out tomorrow.

In four weeks on November 17 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (244°) at 4:30 pm (Standard Time),🌄 which is one hour, 34 minutes and one second earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had cold, partly cloudy and temperatures between 38 and 17 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 47 and 31 degrees. The record high of 73 degrees was set back in 1928.

Looking ahead, Election Day 2020 🗳️ is in 2 weeks, Average High is 50 🍂 is in 3 weeks, December 🎄 is in 6 weeks, Bill of Rights Day 📜 is in 8 weeks, Days are Getting Longer ☀️ is in 9 weeks, Cold Moon 🌕 is in 10 weeks, National Bird Day 🐧 is in 11 weeks, Inauguration Day ✅ is in 3 months, 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 14 weeks, Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 15 weeks and 5:30 PM Sunset 🌆 is in 4 months.

Starting To Rain

NJ And CT Qualify For State Quarantine List But Cuomo Rules Out Enforcement – Gothamist

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NJ And CT Qualify For State Quarantine List But Cuomo Rules Out Enforcement – Gothamist

Virus levels in New Jersey and Connecticut have surged high enough to put the states on New York's restricted travel list—but actively enforcing any quarantines would be impossible, Governor Andrew Cuomo and his team said during a press call Tuesday.

Connecticut's positivity rate was a little below 2% and New Jersey is a little below 3%—but they both meet the metrics for 10 per 100,000 cases on a seven-day rolling average, qualifying the two neighboring states on the travel restrictions list for New York, according to Beth Garvey, the governor's special counsel and adviser.

But Cuomo said enforcement would be impossible.