January 30, 2017 Night

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Good evening! Mostly clear and 20 degrees in Delmar. There is a west-northwest breeze at 10 mph. A fairly cool evening. The current wind chill is 9. I was a bit chilly waiting out for the bus this evening when I left work at 7:30. 

They got the new solar lights turned on at the bus stop at Washington and Swan NY the Education Building. More light makes it safer later into the evening and just makes the stop more pleasant. Recently, after a long period of many of the street lights malfunctioning downtown by the Capitol, National Grid restored them and they are back working again. It was bad for a while with how few streetlights worked downtown, especially because they used the dimmer mercury vapor lights around the Capitol in an effort to be more historic at least in a 1950s sense downtown. 

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 12 degrees at 4am. Three degrees below normal. West wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light southwest after midnight. In 2016, it got down to 36 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The record low of -26 occurred back in 1948.

Earlier tonight there was a big beautiful crescent moon that I saw from the bus coming home this evening. It was really beautiful. The First Quarter Moon is on Saturday night with mostly cloudy skies expected. The Full “Snow” Moon is on Saturday, February 11th. The sun will rise at 7:09 am with the first light at 6:40 am, which is 1 minutes and 1 seconds earlier then yesterday. Tonight will have 14 hours and 1 minutes of darkness, a decrease of 2 minutes and 20 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have a slight chance of snow before 10am, then snow likely after 11am.  Mostly cloudy, with a high of 28 degrees at 1pm. Three degrees below normal. South wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of around an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies and a high of 52 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1913. 6.9 inches of snow fell back in 2000.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 27. Sunday, mostly cloudy, with a high near 30. Cool but nice weather might be delightful on Saturday.Typical average high for the weekend is 32 degrees.

In four weeks on February 27 the sun will be setting at 5:43 pm, which is 36 minutes later then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had snow and temperatures between 39 and 17 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 38 and 20 degrees. The record high of 61 degrees was set back in 1997.

Looking ahead, Presidents Day is in 3 weeks, Patriots Day is in 11 weeks, May Day is in 13 weeks and Memorial Day is in 17 weeks.

New York State Forests

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New York State Forests

"New York State Forests are administered by the Division of Lands and Forests of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). New York State Forests include reforestation, multiple use, and unique areas; and state nature and historic preserves, with approximately 600,000 acres (2,400 km2) classified as reforestation areas and approximately 100,000 acres (400 km2) classified as multiple use lands. Land within the Adirondack Park or the Catskill Park is not included as part of the State Forest system."

Why his story still matters today

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Fred Korematsu: Why his story still matters today

"US President Donald Trump's executive order to ban immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries is being compared to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II."

"Barely two months after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, nearly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry residing on the country's western coast were branded a military threat and put inside internment camps across the country."

"But a 23-year-old Japanese-American, Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu, defied Executive Order 9066 by President Franklin D Roosevelt and went into hiding instead of voluntarily relocating to an internment camp, where conditions were often harsh."

"Korematsu was finally arrested in May 1942 and convicted of defying the government order. He fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court but the top court ruled against him."

"He was released after the end of World War II but the conviction remained on his record until it was overturned in 1983, by a court that said the internment was racially motivated."

Iframes Aren’t Evil

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Don’t fear the iframe.

I had gotten away in iframes in years past, but I’ve started to use them more on the blog, because they really are the best way to include maps, charts, and other content without having to override stylesheets. They also encourage caching and make coding much easier. Embeded iframes are totally hidden on modern browsers, and widely used on other social media platforms, including Youtube embeds.