September 20, 2017 Night

Good evening! Mostly cloudy and 69 degrees in Delmar. There is a north breeze at 6 mph. The dew point is 64 degrees. Sure feels like a pretty sticky evening. But then again, I walked to Albany Medical Center and back downtown then washed dishes in a hot, non-air conditioned kitchen for about two hours. All that steam was hot, felt more like a summer night then one in the second half of September. Some clearing now, but you can only a see a few stars. More later. The skies will clear around 11 pm.

Tonight will have patchy fog after 11pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low of 62 degrees at 5am. 12 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 65 at 10pm. North wind 3 to 6 mph. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 58 degrees. The record low of 29 occurred back in 1973.

Tonight’s waxing crescent moon was just a sliver, mostly covered in the clouds. The First Quarter Moon is next Wednesday. The Hunter Moon is on Thursday, October 5th. The sun will rise at 6:41 am with the first light at 6:13 am, which is one minute and 5 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 11 hours and 47 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 53 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will have patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high of 83 degrees at 3pm. 13 degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 63 at 8am. Another fairly hot and somewhat humid day. Kind of unusual, but not unheard of as Indian Summer starts on Friday with the start of calendar fall. North wind 6 to 9 mph. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was somewhat humid. The high last year was 80 degrees. The record high of 95 was set in 1895.

Awesome first weekend on tap, with temperatures running 16 degrees above normal. Maybe a little hotter then your taste? Saturday, sunny, with a high near 83. Maximum dew point of 63 at 5pm. Sunday, sunny, with a high near 87. Maximum dew point of 65 at 4pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 69 degrees. So we are much above normal for this time of year.

I am still seriously considering a trip up to Moose River Plains this weekend, leaving on Friday after work and returning on Monday afternoon. I don’t have the time off yet, but I think the calendar is fairly clearly for Monday so I can request it off. The one thing is it’s going to be so hot this weekend, that I’m going to want to be swimming or at least paddling, and there are only limited opportunities to do that up at Moose River Plains. This almost looks like it would have been a better weekend for the Potholers and Piseco-Powley Road but I just was there last week. I guess I could do North Lake in the Adirondacks, but I don’t know, if it’s nice it might be crowded up there. The campsites are a little to close together for my liking. I still have to pack and unfortunately I won’t get home until late again tomorrow as I have to do some more stuff after work. It looks like ample blue skies this weekend, with lots of color in the trees.

Before I head out of the weekend, I want to swap those wires on the relay and get those floor lights hooked up so they turn on automatically when the truck is shut off and turn back off when the truck is on. Not essential but it’s how I want to set up the relay.

The Save the Pine Bush Dinner went well, the dishes got washed, which is my big contribution to the project. Everybody has a job, and my little part works well. I know how to work the dish washer, and where most of the dishes go back away, which ensures this critical task gets done. But it sure was hot back there in the kitchen this week. I don’t know how the cooks did it with the ovens putting out so much heat.

Still enjoying the Bluetooth keyboard, so I hope the mouse comes soon and it works, because I hate having to reach up and touch my phone screen to do tasks that aren’t easily controllable from the keyboard. Once I have that, my smartphone will be like a miniature portable computer that doesn’t use much battery power and can be brought anywhere I have cell service or used for writing blog posts to be posted later on.

It was just kind of a crazy day at work with some things getting messed up, then walking up and back to the Albany Medical Center and all the pertains to, along with washing dishes. I am dog tired tonight, I expect I will retire to bed shortly.

In four weeks on October 18 the sun will be setting at 6:06 pm, which is 47 minutes and 49 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had rain, shallow fog, patches of fog, mist, mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 84 and 57 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 59 and 39 degrees. The record high of 84 degrees was set back in 2016.

Looking ahead, Average High is 70 is in 0 weeks, Hunter’s Moon is in 2 weeks, Thanksgiving is in 9 weeks and Inaugeration Day 2021 is in 39 months.

NY 170A

Farm country outside of Little Falls in Mohawk Valley. Town of Salisbury in Fulton County, up on "Top Notch" according to my topographic map. Nice drive, especially in the fall before they start spreading manure on the fields.

Truck follows GPS directions onto boardwalk, leaving trail of damage behind

Truck follows GPS directions onto boardwalk, leaving trail of damage behind

To be fair, a semi-truck in the 1970s got stuck on the Harrisburg Road Snowmobile Trail, and that was 40 years before GPS. http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/12/tip-dont-drive-big-rigs-on-snowmobile-trails.html

"A tractor-trailer driver found himself in an unusual situation Wednesday morning because of what the driver said was a GPS error."

"Ventnor City Police Chief Doug Biagi said an officer spotted an 18-wheel tractor trailer the near Washington Avenue section of the Boardwalk around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday."

"According to the police chief, this is the second time in two months that a truck has come down the boardwalk in Ventnor. The first time was a building supply truck back in July."

The idea that climate scientists are in it for the cash has deep ideological roots

The idea that climate scientists are in it for the cash has deep ideological roots

"This brings us back to the notion that cancer doctors might have a personal interest in not finding a cure. Proponents of public choice – including those who worked with Buchanan - have made just those claims.

In 1992, two academics from the Center for the Study of Public Choice at George Mason University (a centre established and led by Buchanan), wrote a book called The Economics of Smoking. In the book, economist Robert Tollison argued that the β€œanti-cancer bureaucracy will face weaker incentives to find and develop effective treatments of and cures for cancer, as well as facing incentives to magnify the risks of cancer”.

β€œA cure for cancer would put many cancer bureaucrats out of work,” Tollison wrote.

So the argument goes that these anti-cancer β€œbureaucrats” were not so much motivated to protect people from painful and deadly conditions linked to smoking, such as cancer and heart disease. Instead, they might work a bit less stringently to find a cure in return for a wage.

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There’s an irony in this accusation of people acting in their self-interest. Before and after writing that book chapter, Tollison was paid consultancy fees by the tobacco industry.

In the archives of tobacco documents released as part of US litigation, you can find a 1989 invoice sent to the Tobacco Institute for Tollison’s work on a β€œmedia tour”.

In 1993, the archives reveal, Tollison and his GMU colleague Robert Wagner, who co-wrote The Economics of Smoking, pitched to the tobacco industry a report attacking the World Health Organization, which would cost $20,000."

September 20, 2017 – Next Sixteen Weeks

Here is a brief chart that shows the climate normals, sunset times, and length of day for next four months in City of Albany…

Week Date Dawn Sun-
rise
Sun-
set
Dusk Day Avg High Avg Low Record Hi Record Low
0 Sep 20 6:13 am 6:41 am 6:54 pm 7:22 pm 12:13 71 50 90 (1946) 30 (1979)
1 Sep 27 6:20 am 6:48 am 6:42 pm 7:10 pm 11:53 68 47 84 (1998) 24 (1947)
2 Oct 4 6:28 am 6:56 am 6:30 pm 6:58 pm 11:33 65 44 86 (1891) 26 (1948)
3 Oct 11 6:36 am 7:04 am 6:18 pm 6:46 pm 11:13 62 41 86 (1949) 22 (1943)
4 Oct 18 6:44 am 7:13 am 6:06 pm 6:35 pm 10:53 59 39 84 (2016) 22 (1978)
5 Oct 25 6:52 am 7:21 am 5:56 pm 6:25 pm 10:34 56 37 77 (1963) 19 (1981)
6 Nov 1 7:00 am 7:30 am 5:46 pm 6:16 pm 10:16 54 35 78 (1950) 22 (1964)
7 Nov 8 6:09 am 6:39 am 4:38 pm 5:08 pm 9:59 51 34 75 (1975) 18 (1971)
8 Nov 15 6:17 am 6:47 am 4:31 pm 5:02 pm 9:43 48 32 74 (1993) 14 (1939)
9 Nov 22 6:25 am 6:56 am 4:26 pm 4:57 pm 9:30 45 30 70 (1931) 9 (1969)
10 Nov 29 6:33 am 7:04 am 4:23 pm 4:54 pm 9:18 42 28 66 (2005) 3 (1875)
11 Dec 6 6:39 am 7:11 am 4:21 pm 4:53 pm 9:10 39 25 68 (2001) -5 (1901)
12 Dec 13 6:45 am 7:17 am 4:22 pm 4:54 pm 9:04 37 22 58 (1984) -6 (1988)
13 Dec 20 6:49 am 7:21 am 4:24 pm 4:56 pm 9:02 34 20 61 (1957) -19 (1951)
14 Dec 27 6:52 am 7:24 am 4:28 pm 5:00 pm 9:04 32 17 60 (1895) -18 (1914)
15 Jan 3 6:53 am 7:25 am 4:34 pm 5:06 pm 9:09 31 16 61 (1913) -14 (1970)
16 Jan 10 6:52 am 7:23 am 4:41 pm 5:13 pm 9:17 30 14 55 (2016) -13 (1968)

Little Rock City Road

Save the Pine Bush Dinner, September 20th at 6 PM

Save the Pine Bush, September 20th at 6 PM

Save the Pine Bush Vegetarian/Vegan Lasgana Dinner
Wednesday, September 20, 2017, 6:00 PM Dinner - 7:00 Presentation

Amanda Dillon Field Ecologist from the the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission will speak about

Wild Bee Species and Insects in the Pine Bush

The Albany Pine Bush Preserve staff have found that many species of wild bees are present in the Pine Bush, making the Pine Bush a significant refuge for pollinator species. Amanda Dillon will talk about her work with bee species and insect conservation in an age of dramatic insect population declines globally.