August 30, 2020 Night

Good evening! Mostly clear and 60 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. 🌌 The dew point is 49 degrees. A pretty nice evening if not a bit cool. I went for my evening walk 🚢🏻 and then sat out for a bit.

Hiking at Cole Hill State Forest was nice but loud with those folks siting in their rifles at Cole Hill. They were being safe and had a good back stop but they were loud especially with the larger caliber stuff they were shooting like the AR-15. πŸ”« The 22 and shotguns weren’t they loud in comparison. Shooting is something folks do on public land. 🌲🌳🌲A lot of wildlife πŸΏοΈπŸ°πŸ¦πŸ¦†πŸ¦‰in the newer clear cut up top there.

At the parents house we had a nice picnic πŸ—which chicken and sweet 🌽. It was a pretty nice evening. I downloaded a bunch of historical topographic maps I want to study and use for projects. πŸ‘•πŸ‘–I did my wash while I was out there but these days wearing shorts and reusing clothes multiple days because I work from home I only had one load from the past week. πŸ‘ƒπŸ» I can be a lot dirtier when I work remotely.

Tonight will be mostly clear πŸŒƒ, with a low of 49 degrees at 4am. Eight degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 22nd. Light west wind. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became partly cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 37 occurred back in 1965.

Tonight will have a Waxing Gibbous πŸŒ” Moon with 95% illuminated. At 9 PM, the moon was in the southeast (143Β°) at an altitude of 19Β° from the horizon, some 242,322 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. πŸš€ At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by March 2nd. Buckle up for safety! πŸ’Ί The Harvest 🌽 Moon is on Tuesday, September 1. The darkest hour is at 12:57 am, followed by dawn at 5:50 am, and sun starting to rise at 6:20 am in the east-northeast (77Β°) and last for 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. πŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 6:57 am with sun in the east (84Β°). Tonight will have 10 hours and 47 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 45 seconds over last night.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny 🌞, with a high of 75 degrees at 4pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 8th. Maximum dew point of 53 at 9am. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies in the morning with some clearing in the afternoon. The high last year was 76 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1953.

Zoom Meetings tomorrow so I’ll probably work down at the library parking lot πŸ…Ώ although it might be nice at the Town Park as long as things are charged on the laptops. πŸ’» Tomorrow seems like it will be modestly busy but not a crazy πŸ€ͺ Monday but that’s certainly subject to change.

No decisions yet on next weekend but as I told my parents much could change with the forecast πŸŒ€ before then. Honestly I’d prefer to head north the following weekend and avoid the crowds. πŸ‘ͺ But if the weather is nice I wouldn’t mind getting away. With remote work and the fact I’m kind of always on call as a supervisor πŸ“žthere really is no time I’m not working. Weekdays and weekends are kind of the same.

In four weeks on September 27 the sun will be setting in the west (268Β°) at 6:43 pm,πŸŒ„ which is 49 minutes and 20 seconds earlier then tonight. Amazing how much daylight you loose around the beginning of autumn. In 2019 on that day, we had mostly sunny, patches of fog and temperatures between 72 and 46 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 68 and 47 degrees. The record high of 89 degrees was set back in 2017.

Continuing to thumb πŸ‘πŸ» through bicycle ads on Facebook. 🚲 There certainly are a lot of affordable options. I really should sit down and figure what I really need in a commuter bike. I’m not sure really what I’m looking at but most of the options are quite affordable that I’m seeing being sold. I know a lot of people who are big bike riders, I should ask them for tips. πŸ€”

Because of issues of incompatibility I’ve not been able to upgrade my blog to the latest version of WordPress. πŸ“ I’ve downloaded the latest version of the software and plan to test it locally to fix the bugs πŸ› so I can update and avoid security problems. πŸ”’ I think I know the issue but I need to test it to be sure.

Looking ahead, Average High 70 πŸŽ‘ is in 3 weeks, More Night then Day 🌌 is in 4 weeks, Last Sunset After 6:30 PM πŸŒ† is in 5 weeks, November πŸ₯§ is in 9 weeks, Cyber Monday πŸ›οΈ and Beaver Moon is in 3 months, First Sunday of Advent ✝️ is in 14 weeks, Saint Nicholas Day πŸŽ… is in 14 weeks, Bacon Day πŸ₯“ is in 4 months, Latest Sunrise of the Winter πŸŒ„οΈ is in 18 weeks and Valentines Day ❀️ is in 24 weeks.

Last night

Downloaded a bunch of Historic Topographic Maps πŸ—Ί

Downloaded a bunch of Historic Topographic Maps πŸ—Ί

Most of them from the early 1940s or 1950s. I’m really quite interested in post World War II sprawl and changes to highways as the modern motoring age came to be.

The nice thing about the old USGS maps is they are all geo referenced, so you can load them into the QGIS for quick comparison – and you can use any 1:24k index to quickly remove the collars. Plus they’re available for a lot more years – going back to the 1890s compared to the 1940s or 1950s for aerial photos.

They will make for interesting blog posts in the coming months and they are fascinating to look at and study the progression of cities over the years. I do want to try and find some contemporary maps in the same style for comparison – I was going to use the DOT topographic maps I have from the early 2000s from the CUGIR website or something made with OpenStreetMap data but I’d like to get something from USGS in a similar scale and design for better comparison. I’ll have to dig around tomorrow.

South Berlin

Heading through South Berlin, Otsego County Farm Country on NY 23.

Scapegoating Others : Goats and Soda : NPR

Why Diseases Bring Out The Worst In Human Nature: Scapegoating Others : Goats and Soda : NPR

The objects of prejudice have included health-care workers, minorities, immigrants, indeed any outsider or other who looks or acts different from those in the local community, says the Belgium-based Verschuere, who works to improve the ability of communities to obtain health care.

This bias occurs around the world.

And it's not anything new.

Villainizing an unknown other as guilty of spreading, causing or exploiting disease has a long, hate-filled history, says Debora MacKenzie, author of the new book Covid-19: The Pandemic That Should Never Have Happened and How to Stop the Next One.