NPR

Some Say Fears Of Food Shortages Are Overblown : NPR

"That is totally the mantra," says Catherine Kling, an economist at Cornell University. "I'll bet I've been to 50 talks in the last five, 10 years where the beginning is, 'We have to feed 9 billion people by 2050. This is a crisis situation.' The word 'crisis' gets used regularly."

But, in fact, the long-term trend, for more than a century, has been toward ever more abundant food, and declining prices.

To be sure, every once in a while, it really does seem like a crisis. It certainly did in 2008. Tom Hertel, a economist at Purdue University, remembers it well. "This was right in the thick of the biofuel-driven madness," Hertel says, when government policies drove a surge in demand for corn to make ethanol. Rice and wheat prices were spiking for other reasons.

Pleasures of the Harbor

I was listening to Phil Ochs Pleasures of the Harbor βš“ and the studio version of the Crucifixion is simply an amazing listening experience. 🎢

So he stands on the sea and shouts to the shore,
But the louder that he screams the longer he’s ignored
For the wine of oblivion is drunk to the dregs
And the merchants of the masses almost have to be begged
‘Till the giant is aware, someone’s pulling at his leg,
And someone is tapping at the door.

Then his message gathers meaning and it spreads accross the land
The rewarding of his pain is the following of the man
But ignorance is everywhere and people have their way
Success is an enemy to the losers of the day
In the shadows of the churches, who knows what they pray
For blood is the language of the band.

August 4, 2020 Night

Good evening! Partly cloudy and 67 degrees in Delmar, NY. πŸŒƒ There is a west-southwest breeze at 14 mph. πŸƒ. The dew point is 66 degrees. The skies will clear around 9 pm.

Sitting out back looking up at the stars ✨, listening to the Chimes of Freedom as the moon πŸŽ‘ rises. It’s a pretty nice evening after what was a rather crazy weather day β›ˆοΈ which kind of roared all around the area barely touched me in Delmar. I went out for my evening walk 🚢 earlier then normal and there was a ton of people out about. πŸ‘―β€β™‚οΈπŸ‘«πŸ‘­ I normally don’t see a lot of people when I walk at nine o’clock.

I do like the very aggressive blue light filter on my new phone πŸ“± and many of the features that come with having a much more modern phone. It does use quite bit more data but I have a decent data package πŸ“¦ so it’s not a big deal. The more modern versions of Android has a lot of small improvements but nice ones.

For tonight it will be partly cloudy πŸŒƒ , with a low of 64 degrees at 4am. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 66 at 9pm. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 43 occurred back in 1972.

Tonight will have a Waining Gibbous πŸŒ– Moon with 97% illuminated. The darkest hour is at 1:02 am, followed by dawn at 5:20 am, and sun starting to rise at 5:52 am in the east-northeast (66Β°) and last for 3 minutes and 11 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 6:31 am with sun in the east-northeast (72Β°). Tonight will have 9 hours and 40 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 17 seconds over last night.

I asked about taking next week off πŸ–οΈand that seems increasingly likely. I’m not sure if I’ll get all week off but I can remote work for anything that comes up. πŸ“± My new phone is pretty amazing and I can do a lot of my work stuff on, especially capable for only sixty bucks. That said I’ll pack the work laptop and if I need to work at the library Wi-Fi πŸ“Άit will work fine.

I’m not sure how nice the weather is going to be next week, 🌦️but the Finger Lakes will be a nice change of pace. If it’s wet and stormy some days I’ll just hang out in camp. πŸ•οΈ I have a bunch of library books to read πŸ“– and I really want some nice quiet days away from it all and the Finger Lakes will be a good change from the Adirondacks. Maybe I can’t block off all work activities on vacation πŸ”‡ – I am a supervisor now – but I’m hoping for a few days unlike earlier in the summer when I spent most of my days working from camp. πŸ’»

Oil change is done, so much easier to just pony up the bucks πŸ›’ but the local shop was a lot more expensive than going to the dealer but when you consider the cost of gas it might make sense going forward at least while I’m working remotely. πŸ”§ Next oil change who knows. Of course if I decide to go carless next year maybe they’re won’t be visits to the repair shop or all the other expenses of motoring. 🏁

It was unusual riding the bus 🚍 after so much time motoring and working from home. It’s just unusual with back door boarding and no bus fares. 🎟 You don’t really get to see the driver. It seems so impersonal. I was the only person on the bus but I wasn’t riding at a peak time. At some point things will return back to normal but I don’t see it happening anytime soon. 🚌 I’ve been told remote work will continue through the end of the year.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 83 degrees at 3pm. One degree above normal, which is similar to a typical day around July 26th. Maximum dew point of 66 at 8am. Southwest wind around 8 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 83 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1955.

Sounds like tomorrow is going to be quite muggy again. 😰 I do want to get to the library and work down there for a while tomorrow. πŸ“§ While I don’t expect many very data intensive work tasks there I do want to get some new photos and content on the blog tomorrow. Later on in the evening I’m going to John Wolcott house 🏑 and maybe pick up some supplies at the store 🏬.

I am excited about my new phone and the new picture uploader I wrote. πŸ–Ό I’ll finally be able to upload high resolution photos as I travel right from my phone wherever I have reception and tell my story better. πŸ“Έ Instagram is fine but the pictures are kind of low resolution and crappy.

In four weeks on September 1 the sun will be setting in the west-northwest (282Β°) at 7:29 pm,πŸŒ„ which is 42 minutes and 24 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had partly sunny, rain showers and temperatures between 75 and 51 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 77 and 57 degrees. The record high of 96 degrees was set back in 1953. Can you believe four weeks until September?

Looking ahead, 4 weeks until September and Election Day 2020 πŸ—³οΈ is in 13 weeks.

Mouse and Baldhead Mountains

The Skeptics Guide #786 – Aug 1 2020

The Skeptics Guide #786 – Aug 1 2020

8/1/20 by SGU Productions

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/110503863
Episode: https://media.libsyn.com/media/skepticsguide/skepticast2020-08-01.mp3

COVID-19 Update; News Items: 5G and COVID-19, The Technology of Getting to Mars, Prayer is Not Medicine, Fake Mediums; Who’s That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Predicting the Pandemic; 5-10 Years – Battery Breakthrough; Science or Fiction

Every week it is interesting to hear the update on Coronavirus. It sounds like the virus might be more than a short term vaccine, not something that lasts super long. πŸ’‰βš—οΈ