August 12, 2019 Night

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Good evening! Cloudy and 73 degrees in Delmar. ☁ Calm wind. The dew point is 64 degrees. It’s not really warm but you really feel the humidity tonight. The skies will clear Wednesday around 2 am.

I went down to the library for a while this evening 📙 to do some internet surfing and then went to Walmart. Now I’m sitting out back with a cold glass of apple juice. 🍏 Probably at least somewhat healthier and a lot cheaper than beer. 🍻 Got to save the good stuff for camping. Fan feels nice in the hot weather.

Tonight will be scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5am. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 68 degrees at 3am. Seven degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 6am. Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. In 2018, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It was sticky. It got down to 68 degrees. The record low of 43 occurred back in 1957.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 98% illuminated. The moon will set at 3:56 am. The Full Moon 🌕 is on Wednesday night with partly cloudy skies expected. The sun will rise at 5:59 am with the first light at 5:28 am, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 9 hours and 59 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 30 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have scattered showers and thunderstorms before 8am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 8am and 4pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Cloudy 🌦, with a high of 75 degrees at 12pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 8th. Maximum dew point of 69 at 12pm. I guess I better bring my rain coat. Light south wind. And maybe turn the hot water heater back on? I turned it off before vacation and have left it off as it’s been so warm. 💦 Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies in the morning with a few breaks of sun the afternoon. It was sticky. The high last year was 79 degrees. The record high of 98 was set in 1947.

In four weeks on September 9 the sun will be setting at 7:15 pm,🌄 which is 45 minutes and 34 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2018 on that day, we had cold weather, partly sunny and temperatures between 63 and 48 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 75 and 54 degrees. The record high of 94 degrees was set back in 1959.

Tuesday is a stay at home night, maybe work on some Pine Bush stuff or other projects. 🌲Wednesday is a Guilderland Town Planning Board meeting to attend and Thursday I’m heading over to John Wolcott. The weekend is to be decided, I might head up north. Maybe even take off Friday, I really should use some of my vacation time up before the end of the summer, I’ve taken relatively few days off this summer. 🏊

On that note, I’m pretty tired 😴 and think I should retire to bed. I sore too and have a bit of a headache but I think that’s just Monday disease or reading too many obnoxious Facebook comments. My liberal friends from Albany don’t represent the whole world 🌍 and there is much beyond New York, even Pennsylvania reminds one that not all is New York. And in less than two months I’ll be in the vast wilds of West Virginia.

Looking ahead, National Dog Day 🐩 is in 2 weeks, Labor Day 👨‍🏭 is in 3 weeks and Columbus Day 🛥️ is in 8 weeks.

Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

Mass media and murder

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I think President Trump is right in viewing the media as partially if not largely responsible for the recent mass shootings.

The truth is the media has a double standard and very different approach to suicide and murder. Suicide is viewed as a tragedy, something that is sad and should be prevented while murder is a crime and evil.

Generally the media views suicide to be a private event, a family matter, and that coverage of it can actually lead to more suicides. When suicide is sometimes discussed in the media, usually it’s in passing and it always includes at least one reference to the suicide hotline. No such occurrence occurs after stories about murder or mass shootings.

People want to believe that murders are evil and possess quantities and beliefs different then our own. In contrast, people who kill themselves are sad, living with despair, suffering from mental illness. But all the evidence points to murder being murder – whether directed towards oneself or others.

Before calling for more gun control or bringing the parents of dead children on the television, I think the media needs to look carefully in the mirror to see who really is to blame for these shootings and murder. Glorification of murder by bringing on sad loved ones isn’t good for our country, even if it’s good for corporate profits due to the high amount of viewers and advertising revenue.

Recommendations for Covering Suicide in the Media: http://reportingonsuicide.org/recommendations/

State appeals ruling barring tree cutting for trails – Adirondack Explorer

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State appeals ruling barring tree cutting for trails – Adirondack Explorer

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Adirondack Park Agency on Friday announced they have filed an appeal of a ruling blocking tree cutting for construction of “community-connector” snowmobile trails in the Adirondacks.

The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court ruled last month that the state’s trail construction cut too many trees to fit with constitutional protections mandating that the Adirondack Forest Preserve will remain “forever wild.” The ruling hinged on an interpretation of the word “timber.” A lawsuit brought by Protect the Adirondacks successfully argued that timber protections must apply to small trees and not just those that could yield marketable logs.