New England Met Spring Banter 2022

[NorEastermass128]

8 minutes ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

Even covid talk beats this

Maybe even dews talk. 

[tunafish]

There's been rumors of war and wars that have been
The meaning of life has been lost with the wind
And there's some people thinkin' that the end is close by
'Stead of learnin' to live, they are learnin' to die
Let me die in my footsteps before I go down under the ground

 

go out and live, ya weenies.

 

 

 

 

[IowaStorm05]

2 hours ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

Tip's spring starts in February when the sun starts to warm his nape through the car window.

(truth be told, mine too)

It makes a difference with snow accumulation. I can recall several mid to late February systems drop snow that failed to stick on the grass. These are obviously weak systems, because you get legit snowstorms in March and early April that stick in the daytime but by the end of February you really feel that sun. It’s a welcome change, and by late March you’re into T-shirt days peppered here and there.

I will miss our winter as we got a few decent systems this winter. It could be my last, because there are talks in the family of moving to Florida by October.

[Typhoon Tip]

3 hours ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

Tip's spring starts in February when the sun starts to warm his nape through the car window.

(truth be told, mine too)

Well yeah hardy har-har but the reason I bring it up - in my defense - has to do with the end of the solar nadir - which is a real thing.

Perennially that date is Feb 10 at 45deg latitude.    There's a bit of philosophy to this... but, in a celestial mechanical purist perspective, the first day of spring should really be when the solar nadir ends, on that date. 

The Earth's air-sea-land machinery takes a long time to switch gears...  March 1st is really just a cataloguing convenience for climate science ( I believe ..that's what I read years ago)  The only real value March 20-22nd has is the fact that the Earth's tilt wrt to the ecliptic is dead even at some point/ hour and moment in the orbital arc through those dates.  

Calling that the first day of spring March 21 doesn't really mean jack shit to celestial mechanics, which is what/why we have seasonal variations at all.  It's just human labels. But to the celestial mechanics, the change begins on ~ Feb 10. 

If humans ever wanted to call seasons based upon a real celestial -rooted metric,  they should be designated relative to latitude... 42 N is ~ Feb 8th... which is Logan airport, given decimals.  

At Logan, winter should be Nov 8 to Feb 8.   Spring should be Feb 8 to May 8.  Summer should be May 8 to Aug 8. Aut should be Aug 8 to Nov 8.  

Climate and sensible weather lag by these solar calendar by 45 or even 60 days... and people probably don't like calling autumn, autumn, when it's 101 F amidst and Dente heat wave on Aug 20... no more than they like calling spring, spring, when there's an 1888 redux... 

[monadnocks]

7 hours ago, Typhoon Tip said:

I know there are both direct and indirect ties to foreign state ...

I was asking whether detection methods knows where the pings are originating.   They can tunnel/'root' technologies ... but a brilliant hacking agencies, or those operating alone ( either ) have means to conceal their whereabouts.   I'm just curious if part of the wave is more just those latter types hitting all at once, and if the difference can be determined.  

The attribution that's generally more valid is careful combing through the techniques, malware code, etc. and comparing it with samples from previous work. Yes, locations can be easily spoofed. Also, it's pretty easy to pivot through a hacked network within a target area so your attack source says "Indiana" but that's just the poor folks who were hacked before you. For DDoS attacks, it's really irrelevant where they originate from, I think. You can ban prefixes and it does filter out some of the noise. There's an article floating out there about one of the Ukrainian hackers who just rented Google cloud space to run his bots.

It's not so much the DDoS attacks that US and allies need to worry about, it's things like wiper ware (ask Sony about that), tool theft (ask the NSA about that one although that was a leak), data theft and SCADA attacks. Water systems? Utilities? GPS data? There's a lot of worrisome things to think about.

[mreaves]

Just for the record, f**k Gonzaga and Arkansas too. 

[BrianW]

Connecticut is going to suspended the 25 cent excise tax on gas for 3 months. 

Connecticut motorists should start seeing relief at the pump in early April with the General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelming approving a three-month suspension of the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon excise tax.

[PhineasC]

3 hours ago, BrianW said:

Connecticut is going to suspended the 25 cent excise tax on gas for 3 months. 

Connecticut motorists should start seeing relief at the pump in early April with the General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelming approving a three-month suspension of the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon excise tax.

Just pushing the underlying problem around to somewhere else (in this case towards the already sky-high budget shortfalls in most states).

[STILL N OF PIKE]

Bitcoin just pushed thru some key resistance (100 day moving average ) and 5 month (moving average at 43,800). Close above that and a successful retest would basically flip crypto back to bullish . Alt coins are already running after bitcoin pushed thru these key levels couple hours ago 

[Ginx snewx]

26 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Just pushing the underlying problem around to somewhere else (in this case towards the already sky-high budget shortfalls in most states).

2 billion dollar surplus in CT. We like the 25 cent reduction 

[Lava Rock]

just got 1st covid test since I have a procedure monday. So they still come outside in full gown, face mask/respirator. Seems over the top at this point.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

3 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Just pushing the underlying problem around to somewhere else (in this case towards the already sky-high budget shortfalls in most states).

I’m pretty sure some New England states have massive surplus right now, including Mass 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

No way Mass will suspend the tax

[weathafella]

33 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

No way Mass will suspend the tax

It’s weird that democratic governors are pushing this.   There are some exceptions.    For example VT.   Moderate republican governor wants to do it but democratic legislators say no..    VT is a pretty high tax state with a lot of citizens feeling the pinch.   It’s not like one could drive less there....

[mreaves]

23 minutes ago, weathafella said:

It’s weird that democratic governors are pushing this.   There are some exceptions.    For example VT.   Moderate republican governor wants to do it but democratic legislators say no..    VT is a pretty high tax state with a lot of citizens feeling the pinch.   It’s not like one could drive less there....

I haven't seen that proposed.  That doesn't mean it hasn't but I haven't seen it in the news

[UnitedWx]

8 hours ago, BrianW said:

Connecticut is going to suspended the 25 cent excise tax on gas for 3 months. 

Connecticut motorists should start seeing relief at the pump in early April with the General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelming approving a three-month suspension of the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon excise tax.

Relief...thats a laugh.. 25 cents won't change much. AND its only gas, not Diesel. 

[monadnocks]

9 hours ago, BrianW said:

Connecticut is going to suspended the 25 cent excise tax on gas for 3 months. 

Connecticut motorists should start seeing relief at the pump in early April with the General Assembly on Wednesday overwhelming approving a three-month suspension of the state’s 25-cent-per-gallon excise tax.

Hopefully it won't work like when NH cut the cigarette tax. The prices stayed the same and the state lost the tax dollars.

[monadnocks]

5 hours ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

Bitcoin just pushed thru some key resistance (100 day moving average ) and 5 month (moving average at 43,800). Close above that and a successful retest would basically flip crypto back to bullish . Alt coins are already running after bitcoin pushed thru these key levels couple hours ago 

On the prospect that Russia will take bitcoin for oil and gas?

[HIPPYVALLEY]

6 hours ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

Bitcoin just pushed thru some key resistance (100 day moving average ) and 5 month (moving average at 43,800). Close above that and a successful retest would basically flip crypto back to bullish . Alt coins are already running after bitcoin pushed thru these key levels couple hours ago 

Needs to hold above 44.5k and ideally 44.8k to confirm bullish trend.  BTC and ETH will lead the way and then the alts will run behind it.   I think late spring through summer will be bullish but I am treading carefully with the little bit of disposable income that I have.   I had 80% gains for 2020-21 and don’t have any interest in coughing that back up through fomo. 

[weathafella]

2 hours ago, mreaves said:

I haven't seen that proposed.  That doesn't mean it hasn't but I haven't seen it in the news

abc news.com

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

21 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

I’m pretty sure some New England states have massive surplus right now, including Mass 

All 50 states actually and 29 have at least a 1billion surplus:

https://thenationaldesk.com/news/fact-check-team/fact-check-team-several-states-sitting-on-billion-dollar-budget-surpluses

[ORH_wxman]

4 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

All 50 states actually and 29 have at least a 1billion surplus:

https://thenationaldesk.com/news/fact-check-team/fact-check-team-several-states-sitting-on-billion-dollar-budget-surpluses

That is sort of fake because of the Covid funds. There’s a lot of states with very bad structural long term deficits that will need major overhauls to close those future obligations. 

[PhineasC]

15 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

That is sort of fake because of the Covid funds. There’s a lot of states with very bad structural long term deficits that will need major overhauls to close those future obligations. 

We can just print another couple trillion dollars to cover all of that. It'll be fine, I'm sure. Everything is just fine out there, indeed!

[powderfreak]

I used to live at the bottom of this road on the Richmond/Bolton, VT line.  What a mud season.

West Bolton, Vermont - Rob Mullen

“Stage Road West Bolton. This was the second vehicle eaten last Friday (and she didn't even make it to the really bad spot). The road grader was working to get the area passable when I walked back down to check the spot Saturday morning (close to the house) and had to work around this abandoned Volvo.  

“My wife had driven our very old Subaru down to the Town Office Thursday and lost the muffler in the mud. Down to just our new Subaru Outback (picked it up Wednesday), I had to drive down the hill three times Friday and wallowed through this spot repeatedly. Need an alignment already.”

[PhineasC]

Subarus and Volvos... yep. LOL

They are OK in snow with their AWD, but I prefer a truck and/or truck-based SUV to handle something like a rutted mud road.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

2 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

That is sort of fake because of the Covid funds. There’s a lot of states with very bad structural long term deficits that will need major overhauls to close those future obligations. 

Some of it for sure… Mass, I’m not so sure 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

23 hours ago, weathafella said:

It’s weird that democratic governors are pushing this.   There are some exceptions.    For example VT.   Moderate republican governor wants to do it but democratic legislators say no..    VT is a pretty high tax state with a lot of citizens feeling the pinch.   It’s not like one could drive less there....

Charlie baker signaled he’d more than likely vote it through.

Its laughable to hear the democratic opposition in Mass saying it’s a “gimmick” and doesn’t provide real relief. Such a tone deaf comment right now with prices of everything soaring. If you can save families 20-30 bucks a week on gas, why not?

[mreaves]

20 hours ago, weathafella said:

abc news.com

I didn’t see anything on abcnews.com about VT rescinding the gas tax.  

[ORH_wxman]

44 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Some of it for sure… Mass, I’m not so sure 

Massachusetts is fine for the most part. It’s in the state constitution that they need a balanced budget. There’s still accounting gimmicks that go on to  produce that every year…MA has some fairly high pension fund liabilities years down the road but they aren’t nearly as bad as states like Illinois/CT/NJ in that department. 

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

Subarus and Volvos... yep. LOL

They are OK in snow with their AWD, but I prefer a truck and/or truck-based SUV to handle something like a rutted mud road.

Clearance is key, usually.  Outbacks/Foresters do a lot better in mud than Legacys/Imprezas (or Volvos).  One spring years ago in Fort Kent, about 2000 feet of our back settlement road turned into mush.  Our '83 Cavalier with aggressive snow treads went thru that mess while full size 2WD pickups could not, even though the car had 13" rims and the trucks 15 or 16".