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A week ago we were cleaning up after receiving 18 inches of snow here at The Gulch. Today, much of that snow is gone, between warmer temperatures and a couple of says of heavy rain. Not that the snow is gone, but there isn’t a lot of bare ground showing. Driveways and roads are clear and most roofs are also snow free.
Yesterday saw high winds with gusts of 40-50 mph. The winds generated white caps and two foot swells out on the lake.
I wish I could say we’re past any winter weather, but the Weather GuysTM have said we’re likely to see snow starting Wednesday and on and off on Thursday and Friday. Winter isn’t over yet...at least according to Mother Nature.
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Oh good grief!! Is there nothing global warming can’t do?
First, it’s going to turn Earth’s surface into something that will resemble Venus and we’re all gonna die. Then it’s going to usher in another Ice Age...and Venus-like temperatures at the same time and we’re all gonna die. The latest claim about the power of global warming?
Global warming will increase plastic pollution.
This is what is going to kill us this time:
Typically viewed as unrelated problems, global warming and plastic pollution are instead inextricably trapped in a “vicious circle” where one feeds the other, researchers in Sweden report in Nature Communications. The mutually-reinforcing relationship escalates global warming, the degradation of materials, plastic waste and the leaching of toxic chemicals into the biosphere.Everything generates greenhouse gases, not just plastics. But one has to ask whether plastics can be re-engineered to reduce emissions as well as toxic chemical runoff? Do all plastics cause this problem or just some of them? If plastics were actually capable of being properly recycled would this reduce the problem, have no effect, or make the problem worse?
Plastics that we rely on every day will deteriorate more rapidly because of rising global temperatures, and one effect will be a demand for more plastics. Xinfeng Wei, a researcher in polymeric materials at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, says meeting that demand will further compound greenhouse emissions that drive up the global temperature.
“A self-reinforcing cycle is formed, creating a vicious circle between climate change and plastic pollution,” Wei says.
In 2019, plastics generated 3.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, or about 1.8 billion tons, mostly on account of their production and conversion from fossil fuels, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). By 2060 that amount is expected to more than double.
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Equity Based Algebra?
Just when I think California can’t get any stupider it proves me wrong.
When the woke claim things like math is racist, one has to figure they’ll also come up with some nonsense as a means of fixing the problem, one that doesn’t exist. So here’s California’s latest bit of delusional silliness – equity based algebra.
The CMF (California Math Framework) is a series of policy and curriculum "suggestions" designed to bring "equity" to the math scores of minority students. Some of [the] outrageous suggestions already adopted are almost beyond belief. Julia Steinberg has listed a few in The Free Press.It only gets worse from there, pushing equity which in this case means pulling students down to the lowest common denominator. That is not how one ensures success of students. It just makes sure they all fail...but at least it will be fair, right?
-Most students won’t learn algebra until high school. In the past, when that was expected of middle schoolers, the CMF tells us, “success for many students was undermined.”Also, "letter grades will be discouraged in favor of 'standards-based assessments.'" It's not very clear what "standards-based assessments" are, but it sure sounds academic and harmless, right?
-This means calculus will mostly be verboten because students can’t take calculus “unless they have taken a high school algebra course or Mathematics I in middle school.”
-“Detracking” (ending advanced courses) will be the law of the land until high school; students will be urged to “take the same rich mathematics courses in kindergarten through eighth grade.”
The worst of it boggles logic and reason.
What a bunch of pure, unadulterated woke bullsh*t.
Read The Whole Thing.
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And that’s the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we’re going to be swinging back and forth between spring and winter weather, there are already some boats back in the water, and where yet again we will not be able to escape Monday.