Van Ho trees were cut on Forest Preserve, too | News, Sports, Jobs – Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Van Ho trees were cut on Forest Preserve, too | News, Sports, Jobs – Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Tree cutting to make way for new amenities at the Mount Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex has not only happened on town land but also on the state Forest Preserve.

The state constitution says the Forest Preserve must be forever wild and that timber may not be sold, removed or destroyed, but a court interpretation from 1930 gives state agencies leeway for some exceptions.

The cutting was later pared down to 1,500 trees, a number that both Protect and the Adirondack Council still opposed. But both organizations agreed not to sue the state as long as the DEC and ORDA would help to prepare, and support, a constitutional amendment.

A constitutional amendment requires approval by the state legislature twice, with an election in between, and then by a majority of all voters in a statewide referendum.

The proposed amendment would essentially authorize certain activities at Mount Van Hoevenberg similar to those already allowed at Gore and Whiteface downhill ski areas, according to Bauer.

eevBLAB #64 – Tesla Solar City Panels Are CATCHING ON FIRE!

High voltage direct current is superior in many ways to alternating current, as it has no losses from impedance, but the arcing problem is a severe one -- high voltage DC has no "zero crossing point" -- so ultra-hot plasma arcs can be hard to extinguish with a poor connections.  Normally, when you break alternating current, every 1/120th of a second the voltage drops to zero, which means plasma arcs are not sustained for long in a broken connection with an air gap. But that doesn't happen with direct current. Of course the fault could have been purely resistivity without plasma arcing -- a poor connection could have increased resistance in the line and created heat, and that can happen with both AC and DC.

Mechanical DC switches -- even at low voltage -- have to be built quite a bit thicker and have wider gaps to extinguish plasma arcs compared to similar AC switches. Transistors are much better at breaking DC arcs. The bad thing with transistors is they have a voltage loss, which means electricity is wasted as heat. The 200 amp DC relay in my truck between the batteries makes one hell of a clunk when you disconnect the load. It has to disconnect and connect quickly, and over a decent sized gap to minimize the time the plasma is burning the contacts. And that's only at 12-15 volts DC, where the amount of arcing is limited. This Technology Connections video does a good explaining why switches go "click" and why it's good thing -- you want switches to open and close quickly to break the connection fast and extinguish plasma arcs that burn the metal in the contacts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrMiqEkSk48

But regardless, an interesting video.

Farm dirt and barn dander — it does a body good! | AGDAILY

Farm dirt and barn dander — it does a body good! | AGDAILY

Fecal samples from the subjects showed the children raised on a farm had a much healthier, more diverse gut microbiome than urban dwelling ones. The urban samples were found to dominantly have Atinobacteria and Bacteroidetes phyla, whereas the Amish ones were primarily Firmicutes. The differences in these two biomes could potentially mean development of stronger, more robust and healthy immune systems, especially concerning the respiratory tract.

Researchers credit much of these findings to livestock exposure and living in an overall less sanitary environment. This is in line with other studies from multiple countries suggesting the same thing — babies and children living in rural, not-too-sanitized environments tend to have more vigorous immune systems. Studies have also shown a link between rural environments with a decrease in asthma and allergies among residents because of this.

This information is certainly intriguing and quite relevant to urbanites and rural citizens. But the study didn’t stop there — researchers went a step further to test their findings. This was conducted using piglets as a model for humans.

Swinging in the hammock

Lately I’ve been doing a lot more writing, as I like swinging back and forth in my hammock, while I think about modern life today and my future tomorrow.

After hiking ten miles the hammock feels nice

Spotlight News โ€“ DEC concerned about white pines decline

Spotlight News โ€“ DEC concerned about white pines decline

NEW YORK — White pine trees are on the decline statewide, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Jessica Cancelliere, a research scientist in DEC’s Forest Health Diagnostic Lab in Delmar and Robert Cole, a Forester in Forest Health in DEC’s Albany office, released an article called “White Pine Decline” in July which discusses the phenomenon and what DEC is doing to remedy it. It had been written in May and June.

While Cancelliere was unavailable for comment, Cole said he also works in DEC’s Bureau of Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health and they acknowledged that the decline was happening throughout the state, not just in the Capital District.

Beyond New York, he said it is impacting white pine ranges across the northeast coast like in New England and even the Midwest region of Canada.

August 22, 2019 Morning

Good morning! Happy Thursday. Six weeks to Last Sunset After 7 PM ๐ŸŒ†. Fog and 71 degrees at the Elm Avenue Park and Ride. ๐ŸŒซย There is a south-southeast breeze at 5 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. The dew point is 66 degrees.ย  Once the fog burns off, the skies should clear and it should be a pretty nice afternoon evening. Not a bad walk down to the Park and Ride, ๐ŸšŒ another big commercial inspection there today. It’s the only way commercial vehicles can get from Albany points South and West due to road restrictions and low bridges, so that’s why it’s so popular with the commercial vehicles.๐Ÿ‘ฎ

Tonight at 7 PM I am leading the Save the Pine Bush Hike. ๐ŸŒฒ It’s going to be a night hike, but should be a pretty good one with clouds burn off an the humidity drops down. We will meet up at the Discovery Center and then hike for about two hours — until well after dark, and then do Blueberry Hill Dune to enjoy the stars after dark.๐ŸŒ  The reason for meeting at the Discovery Center is that the parking lot there is lit all night, which makes it safer to get back to the vehicles after dark.

Later on today, partly sunny ๐ŸŒค, with a high of 85 degrees at 3pm. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 10am, then dropping through the afternoon. Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 81 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1916.

The sun will set at 7:45 pm with dusk around 8:15 pm, which is one minute and 35 seconds earlier than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies ๐ŸŒค and temperatures around 79 degrees. The dew point will be 62 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 13 hours and 35 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 39 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy ๐ŸŒง, with a low of 59 degrees at 5am. Typical for tonight. Maximum dew point of 62 at 6pm. Northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1988.

Last night was the Save the Pine Bush Dinnerย featuring Professor Lou Ismay, which you can listen to the SPB Podcasts Page.ย  Good lasagna and interesting lecture. I avoided drinking caffeinated coffee this time, โ˜• but I sure was tired by the time I got home.๐Ÿฎ I thought about getting milk when I got home, but I waited until this morning to walk over to Stewart’s and buy milk. It turned out I had enough milk at home from the past weekend, and it wasn’t spoiled, so I finished up this morning, and will have more of my favorite cow beverage for tonight.

Today in 1971, twenty of the Camden 28 were arrested. They were a group of “Catholic left” anti-Vietnam War activists who in 1971 planned and executed a raid on a Camden, New Jersey draft board. โœThe raid resulted in a high-profile criminal trial of the activists that was seen by many as a referendum on the Vietnam War and as an example of successful use of jury nullification.โœŠ

Should be a nice final weekend of summer — cool but sunny. ๐Ÿ˜Ž Saturday, sunny, with a high near 77. Calm wind becoming north 5 to 9 mph in the morning. Maximum dew point of 57 at 8pm. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 77. Maximum dew point of 58 at 12pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 79 degrees. Next weekend is Labor Day Weekend, the closing day for most of the state park pools, with many beaches already done for the summer.๐Ÿ– Fortunately the Potholers don’t close until it gets too cold, so I might get one more trip up there this autumn.

One month ๐Ÿ“… from now will be Autumn ๐Ÿ‚ when the sun will be setting at 6:52 pm with dusk at 7:20 pm. The average high temperature is 70 degrees, with a record high of 95 in 1897.

Low clouds

August 22, 2019 9 AM Update

Average Temperatures

This table shows the average high, median, and low temperatures for the next year in Albany. Previous year values are shown in parenthesis.

Turned out to be a beautiful evening

Date High Median Low
Thursday, August 22 80 (81) 70 (73) 59 (66)
Sunday, September 8 75 (64) 65 (58) 55 (52)
Saturday, September 21 70 (71) 60 (68) 50 (65)
Wednesday, October 2 65 (66) 55 (59) 45 (52)
Tuesday, October 15 60 (61) 50 (50) 40 (39)
Monday, October 28 55 (51) 46 (46) 36 (41)
Sunday, November 10 50 (42) 42 (39) 33 (35)
Friday, November 22 45 (19) 38 (14) 30 (8)
Wednesday, December 4 40 (39) 33 (30) 26 (21)
Tuesday, December 17 35 (27) 28 (18) 21 (8)
Wednesday, January 8 30 (27) 22 (22) 15 (16)
Saturday, February 15 35 (53) 26 (42) 17 (30)
Wednesday, March 4 40 (38) 31 (35) 22 (32)
Tuesday, March 17 45 (38) 35 (27) 26 (15)
Saturday, March 28 50 (49) 40 (42) 30 (36)
Tuesday, April 7 55 (40) 44 (33) 34 (25)
Saturday, April 18 60 (47) 49 (40) 38 (33)
Friday, May 1 65 (74) 54 (58) 43 (43)
Saturday, May 16 70 (72) 58 (62) 47 (51)
Wednesday, June 3 75 (76) 64 (67) 53 (58)
Monday, June 22 80 (81) 69 (65) 59 (50)