As Petrochemical Industry Extends Along Ohio River, Pollution Follows Close Behind | WOSU Radio
Big Money Builds A New Kind Of National Park : NPR
“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times,” EPA rules to be reviewed – Vox
President Donald Trump’s latest effort to reshape US environmental regulations appears to involve toilets.
During a small business event at the White House Friday, Trump announced he has ordered a federal review of water efficiency standards pertaining to bathroom fixtures.
“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once. They end up using more water,” Trump said, complaining that water flow in other fixtures has slowed to a trickle. “You can’t wash your hands practically, there’s so little water comes out of the faucet, and the end result is you leave the faucet on and it takes you much longer to wash your hands, you end up using the same amount of water.”
Although Trump said during the event that the “EPA is looking at [water flow] very strongly, at my suggestion,” this review is actually mandated under 2018 legislation that directs the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate water regulations adopted before 2012.
These include the agency’s WaterSense program, which was first launched in 2006 in order to reduce the water use of fixtures like toilets. The requirement that toilets use a set amount of water began on the federal level in 1992, according to the Associated Press, when President George H.W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act, a law mandating any toilets installed in homes after 1994 use 1.6 gallons of water or less per flush.
Another Good Jobs Report.
After another good jobs report, the spin doctors were out there talking about how bad the economy really is …. 🤔
The truth is any good economy is going to have it’s weaknesses and it’s problems. Poverty is always going to be a problem in certain parts of country — rural areas and those with more people of color. A good economy is helping to lift those boats, although there should be more targeted programs to help historically disadvantaged communities get the education and assistance they need to relocate to better jobs — if that’s what people want to do.
I don’t think it’s productive to dismiss the good economy because you don’t like the man in the White House, but we should also be realistic and recognize that not all gains are widely shared. We shouldn’t try to overheat an already roaring economy, but target those communities that need the most help now. We should also be contingent that a good economy won’t last forever and encourage people to prepare for the next downturn by savings and building more security into their lives.
The Dark History of Our Obsession With Productivity
As workers, we are obsessed with getting stuff done. No wonder there seems to be a bottomless well of advice, filled with evangelists, gurus, and thought leaders proferring hacks, tools, tricks, and secrets to help us pack more output into the waking hours of our workdays. Productivity software alone accounts for an $82 billion market, according to IBISWorld research.
Dynaflow!
December 8, 2019 Night
Good evening! Partly cloudy and 31 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ Breezy, ️23 mph breeze from the south 🌬 with gusts up to 36 mph 💨💨💨. The current wind chill is 17. There are 15 inches of snow on the ground. ☃ ️Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around noontime. 🌡️
I decided with the wind 🍃, not to do my evening walk 🚶I think with the wind and dampness it would be rather cold and I did get some decent exercise in skiing 🎿 earlier today. It was nice in the Gorge. I had a nice Sunday dinner 🍲 at the folks house and then came home, folded my clothes and did more reading 📖 about Butchering. 🥩I reread part of the book again because I lost my page in the book.🔖Also a bit achy all day today, not sure if that’s the Lyme coming back but I was fine skiing and it was pretty good but tiring climbing out of the gorge. 😮
Tonight will be mostly cloudy 🌥, with a low of 30 degrees at 8pm. Six degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 23rd. Breezy, with a south wind 18 to 23 mph decreasing to 10 to 15 mph after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 36 mph. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 17 degrees. The record low of -11 occurred back in 1902.
Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous Moon 🌔 with 95% illuminated. The moon will set at 4:16 am. The Cold Moon 🌕 is on Wednesday night with scattered snow showers around. The sun will rise at 7:12 am with the first light at 6:40 am, which is 56 seconds later than yesterday. 🌄 Tonight will have 14 hours and 51 minutes of darkness, an increase of 58 seconds over last night.
Tomorrow will rain, mainly after 10am. I think I can walk down to the bus tomorrow. Patchy fog after 9am. 🌧 High of 49 degrees at 6pm. 11 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around November 14th. South wind 7 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. Not a big wash out but still a bummer of a day for the first day of snowmobile and black powder season. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 62 was set in 1966. 7.3 inches of snow fell back in 2009.❄
Fixed some more bugs on the blog 🐞and I’m hopeful I’ve figured out the display glitch I’m seeing on the mobile 📱 version but that’s going to require more testing. Web page 📄 speed loading has improved dramatically at times after disabling that troublesome plug in. I also fixed the template so it says an increase or a loss of daylight like it should but has been broken for years due to my sloppy programing.
The repairs to the ski boots I made last year and the repairs to the skis are holding up good, the only thing left to repair is to install new baskets on my ski poles and I should good for doing a lot of cross country skiing now that big game hunting season done. 🎿 Some people would have just tossed my gear – the boots and ski poles are second hand from the Bethlehem Sportsmart from 20 plus years ago and at least the boots are 30 years old but they still work great with some minor gluing and repairs. 👚 On a related note, I still wear sweater vests and sweaters from high school that are two decades old now.
Don’t need to be throwing things away constantly, especially when you can use money 💵 towards a better tomorrow. I guess I got thinking about that after listening to the podcast about thrift stores. I should also look at thrift stores again – I was reading 📖 about them and how you can get some really good deals there, although I hardly need anymore clothes or stuff.🎁
Tomorrow I’m going to request December 30th off so I can possibly do a five day trip from December 28 through January 1st, depending on the weather. ⛺ I’m thinking about a winter camping trip at the Finger Lakes National Forest or maybe the Adirondacks depending on the snow ❄. I think it would be a fun way to round out the decade and I’ve been itching to get out of town for more than a day. I think there is a good chance that I’ll get the day off, especially as I don’t have clients right now per se that need covering.
In four weeks on January 5 the sun will be setting at 4:35 pm,🌄 which is 13 minutes and 58 seconds later then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had rain and temperatures between 40 and 29 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 31 and 15 degrees. The record high of 64 degrees was set back in 1950.
Looking ahead, National Bird Day 🐧 is in 4 weeks, Bubble Bath Day 🧼 is a month away, National Popcorn Day 🍿 is in 6 weeks, National Pie Day 🍰 is in 6 weeks, 5:30 PM Dusk 🌆 is in 7 weeks, Ground Hog Day 🐻 is in 8 weeks, Snow Moon 🌕 is in 9 weeks, March 🌨 is in 12 weeks, Daylight Savings Time 🌆 is in 3 months, Ides of March ✝ is in 14 weeks, Pink Moon 🌕 is in 4 months, Palm Sunday 🌴 is in 17 weeks, Easter 🐰 is in 18 weeks, Mothers Day 👩 is in 22 weeks, Pack Rat Day 🐀 is in 23 weeks and Strawberry Moon 🌕 is in 26 weeks.
