New Years Day Delayed

A "leap second" will be added to this year's New Year's countdown to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth's rotation.

The extra second will occur as clocks strike midnight and a time of 23:59:60 will be recorded, delaying 2017 momentarily.

A leap second last occurred in June 2015 and this will be the 27th time it has occurred.

The change is required because standard time lags behind atomic clocks.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) - responsible for the UK's national time scale - uses the atomic clock to provide a stable and continuous timescale.

Along with other clocks across the globe, it provides the world with its coordinated universal time.
NPL senior research scientist Peter Whibberley said: "Atomic clocks are more than a million times better at keeping time than the rotation of the Earth, which fluctuates unpredictably.
"Leap seconds are needed to prevent civil time drifting away from Earth time.

"Although the drift is small - taking around 1,000 years to accumulate a one-hour difference - if not corrected it would eventually result in clocks showing midday before sunrise."

Atomic clocks use the change of electron energy levels to tell the time.
The time created by the clocks is used in GPS location devices and is used to control the wave frequency of television broadcasts.

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in France tracks the Earth's rotation and announces the need for a leap second.

(From the BBC)

Eleventh Anniversary

December, which is fast disappearing into the rear view mirror, is my eleventh anniversary writing this blog. In that time I have collected 483,028 page views to date. Thanks for contributing by followinmg my rants, writings and philosophical ruminations.

Holiday Season

Well, we've dashed through most of December, survived the bitter cold. Now, we are on the downhill side for Christmas and New Year's day.

I would like to extend best wishes from Bayviews to all that read my blog. Have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Herb

School Bus Seat Belts

 


I am amazed that this is even an issue. Give it a huge Duh! If you are driving your children in the family car, you must secure them with seat belts and seat them in the back seats so they cannot be killed by air bag deployment. (Another thread for another day)

If parents are penalized by the authorities for failure to protect their children, why are school districts allowed to transport the kids in a lose peas in a pod grouping, where they can fly around the interior bouncing off other seats and worse when involved in an accident.

The horrible accident recently in Tennessee brought this discussion to a head and it needs to be addressed with safety as the rule, not cost. Are we to quantify the value of a child's life?

Recently, a mother and two children were involved in a serious accident. One child was injured, the other, thrown out of the car, died at the scene. The mother was charged with manslaughter. Why then, if she is guilty of a serious crime, are the schools not? Ironic? Yes! Double standard? Of course.

Bayview Water & Sewer

We will not be having a Bayview Water and Sewer Board meeting on December 20, 2016. We will have our next meeting on January 17, 2017, at our normal time. We will see you all next year. Have a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.  

Thanks very much.

Richard Doney, Chairman Bayview Water and Sewer
r.doney@verizon.net

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Weather Convergence Zones

Today I am going to bitch out the U.S. Weather Bureau for inaccuracies as they regularly apply to Bayview and some extent, Athol. If you subscribe to Accuweather on line, you will notice time after time, a split in the storms.

These are caused by the storm hitting Mt. Spokane, splitting north and south and converging in the Silver Valley. Tonight, I watched Accuweather do it again, and incidentally they just repeat what the US Weather Bureau gives them.

The snow storm was supposed to hit Bayview around 7:00 pm. Then they kept backing it off, until it finally started about 8:40 pm. Switching to radar, sure enough the storm split and went north and south of us until finally the main body overwhelmed the mountain effect.

I am going to make every effort to educate the weather guessers to the reality that we have a mountain guarding our portals Wish me luck.

In the mean time, Monday the weather is predicted to turn very cold with night time temps in the single digits. Drip those faucets folks, since we are due to another several days of frigid weather. If the temps Sunday go above freezing as predicted, the powder on our roads will partially melt, and the refreeze making the Monday commute dicey. Be careful out there.

My caregiver, yes I have one now, went above the call of duty today and dug my car out. Way to go, Chrystal.

Health Issues

I doubt that most of you care a rat's ass about my health issues, but the amazing thing is that at almost 79, I haven't any recent ones if you don't count the prostate cancer about 15 years ago that fortunately, since I have Veterans Administration health care, I was able to avoid surgery in favor of radiation. Something that would have cost about $35,000 if not paid for by the VA, and ruined many facets of my potential sexuality, not to mention the inevitable incontinence  that would have occurred later in life.

Not thinking I would look good wearing diapers, I chose the route to lesser less invasive treatment. One that would have permitted me to have a normal relationship with a woman. Alas, I forgot the important ingredient. The woman.

Up until last week, nothing noteworthy has happened. Then I found out about Kidney Stones. This is probably the only way you can legally get stoned in Idaho without visiting the county jail. I had a mild attack, fortunately passing some small ones.

Tomorrow, Thursday, I will trek over to Spokane for a CT scan to ascertain whether more rocks are lurking in my nether parts.

But when I consider my health against most of the people I know, I am blessed. I joke with my health provider that when I die it will be from nothing.

I was even fortunate to avoid, (so far) the big stones that cause one to writhe upon the floor in agony. Fortunately, there are treatments to destroy these rocks lurking in the shadows and the VA will provide the treatments that most people cannot afford.

Little did I know, when back in 1960, when I mustered out of the Air Force, that I, while serving at slave wages, would eventually become rich with VA health care.I am truly blessed by a system, while not always perfect, eventually gets it right.

Found Cat

I just learned that a house cat that has been de-clawed was found on Cape horn Road. If your cat is missing, call before it freezes I do not have a description yet but will add it as obtained. 683-9107

Changes

We are undergoing heavy changes this year as we side into the holidays.

In my lifetime I have witnessed the end of World War 11, the Korean war and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The death of Fidel Castro and the changes that will occur in Cuba are yet to play out as well as the ultimate results following the huge Republican victory in this year's national election.

I think Raul Castro may institute substantial changes in how Cuba relates to other nations and to their own people.

The U.S. election is very unclear. In a polar like change, the Republican Party has morphed into the champions of labor and a populist base while the stunning defeat by the Democrats is still not understood by themselves as they persist in denial.

It really started many years ago as the Dems abandon labor in favor of racial politics and extreme conservationists. Looking for a new way to get recognition the manual labor force discovered Trump, a man who spoke their language. Anger with the status quo ruled the day.

The University of Washington will be playing in the final four for football national champions

There will be some static from our relationship with China and other Asian nations, not to mention the war against terrorism in the middle east. An ancient curse comes to mind as we enter these ruffled waters. "May you live in interesting times."

PS: Page views since 2005: 475,415 to date. Thank you for following this blog.