Daybreak Friday 1/22/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

More snow, getting colder. There's a low pressure system from Canada coming through today, bringing a slight chance of snow all day and a cold front later in the day—though first we get into the mid-30s. Maybe some sky late morning but clouds much of the day. Temps into the teens tonight. "Lost Woods": In which Henry sets out to explore Lost Woods...by boat. As you know, Lebanon author and illustrator D.B. Johnson (Henry Hikes to Fitchburg and other classics) is lending his new comic strip to this spot each Friday, a week's worth at a time. It's Week 8: Scroll right to see what happens, left to catch up on previous weeks.A bog in winter. Woodstock photographer Lauran Corson was out at Eshqua Bog yesterday. It's not a place people tend to go in winter, but maybe that's a mistake. "There was not a soul there (or had been there maybe since the first snow) and the absolute stillness was amazing," she writes. "Each turn on the boardwalk had a different snow formation on trees and branches. While I was on micro-spikes, my snowshoes would have been a better choice."Thetford hires new town manager. Bryan Gazda, who starts Feb. 1, will be the town's fourth in 17 months, notes the Valley News's Anna Merriman. He replaces interim manager Tom Yennerell, a former manager in Springfield, who took over in October after Guy Scaife left. Gazda, who's spent the last two decades in town governments in New York State, tells Merriman he's drawn by the traditions of town meeting and volunteer boards. “It’s a different form of government, where residents are more directly involved. That’s what I see in Vermont — the purest form of collaborative government.”"Garage band robotics." That's what members of a team of Dartmouth engineering students call their project—building lunar rovers that can link up to handle rough terrain—which, thanks to pandemic restrictions, they had to put together in prof Laura Ray's garage and test in her yard. It's just won NASA's award for best technical paper in the space agency's BIG Idea Challenge, which wanted ideas for helping to explore and find resources on the dark side of the moon. The Dartmouth's Manasi Singh explains it all. Colby-Sawyer lands biggest gift in its history. The $10.2 million investment from William and Sonja Carlson Davidow will go to the college's endowment, with some funding two faculty chairs and $500,000 creating a financial assistance fund. “Financial aid made it possible for Sonja to attend Colby-Sawyer,” William Davidow, who as at Dartmouth when he and his future wife met, says in the college's press release. “It was a gift that changed her life, so we would love others to have access to that same life-changing opportunity.”Hiking close to home: the Shumway Forest trails. The UV Trails Alliance points out an under-used but spectacular trail network, minutes from Hanover, that offers hiking, snowshoeing and ungroomed skiing. There are challenges for every level, from a short nature-viewing loop around Mill Pond to a longer trek taking in Moose Mountain Ridge Trail and some of the best views in the Upper Valley. You'll want to plan your route and distance, since there are multiple trailheads, trails, and crossings, including links to the AT. You'll find small parking areas on Moose Mountain Lodge Rd. and another just off 3 Mile Road. "We’ve had people come up to us and tell us that they put (Purple Hippo) in their raisin bran, they put it on their desserts, their cheesecake, their ice cream." In case you're new to WRJ's Angry Goat Pepper Co., Purple Hippo is one of their hot sauces. In the VN's Enterprise mag, Isaac Lorton profiles Roberta and Jason Parker, who've driven Angry Goat to the peaks of hot-sauce success, along with two other "untraditional" companies: Carl Russell's Russell Forestry Services, which specializes in ecological forestry, and Kate and Josh Dickey's werecyclefood.com, which does just that. "We want those people who are over the age of 65 to access the vaccine. That’s who’s dying in our state..." That's Dr. Beth Daly, chief of NH's Bureau of Infectious Disease Control. On Wednesday, she, state epidemiologist Ben Chan, and D-H's Dr. Elizabeth Talbot spoke to NHPR's The Exchange about the state's struggles with limited vaccine supplies from the feds, how they've arrived at their protocols, the still open question of whether the vaccine prevents asymptomatic transmission, and other issues.Federal appeals court sides with NH on online lottery sales. It's been a while since we talked about this, but you may remember that in 2018 the Trump administration held that online lottery-ticket sales violate the 1961 Wire Act. NH sued (it sells online), and a lower court sided with the state. On Wednesday, the feds lost their appeal, with the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the act doesn't apply to games of chance. It's unclear, NHPR's Todd Bookman reports, whether the Biden administration will appeal to the Supreme Court.NH mayors, school board chairs fret about losing funding. In a letter to state officials yesterday, they note that with fewer families filling out free-and-reduced lunch applications and declining enrollment as parents home-school or send their kids to private schools, they face cuts in state and federal aid. Manchester and Keene both face millions of dollars in cuts under current spending formulas, reports NHPR's Sarah Gibson. Slate Ridge ordered to halt training activities...by environmental court judge. The firearms training facility in W. Pawlet, VT has come in for statewide notoriety since VTDigger first wrote about its hostile relations with its neighbors; owner Daniel Banyai earlier this week was barred from contact with the facility's closest neighbor. Now an environmental court judge has found that Slate Ridge is running an “unpermitted firearms training facility” and issued a preliminary injunction ordering it to stop operating pending a final ruling in the case.VT teachers question state's assurances about in-school transmission. State numbers, reports Seven Days' Derek Brouwer, show that infection rates among teachers appear to be lower than among the general population, leading officials to press harder for in-person learning and argue teachers don't need to be among the first in line for vaccines. But a group of teachers are pushing back, contending the data is flawed since it "only includes instances when an infected person was on school property during their 'infectious period,'" Brouwer writes—a fuzzy metric. He explores the arguments on both sides.In VT, minority business owners feel unserved by mainstream business associations. That's the finding of a survey the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, based in Brattleboro. As a result, its director, Curtiss Reed, is laying the groundwork to start up a minority-focused chamber of commerce, reports VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen. “For a minority-owned business, there’s always the question of whether or not the people that purport to help you are really trying to help you," Reed tells her.New Act 250 executive order faces potential roadblocks. Last week, Gov. Phil Scott set out to do what the VT legislature failed to do last session: create a single statewide board to administer Act 250 regs, rather than the nine volunteer district commissions that do so now. But his move, writes Seven Days' Kevin McCallum, is drawing fire from legislators who argue the move is unneeded and others who believe it's executive overreach. State law says that a single chamber can block it...but even that's under dispute, McCallum writes.We're all Bernie. Okay, not quite, but in the wake of MittenMeme, Artful blogger Susan Apel recalls once trying to find her flight to Burlington. "From a distance I saw a crowded gate and knew," she writes. "The waiting area was filled with people looking like, well, Bernie at the inauguration. Ah yes, I said to myself. This must be my gate. These are my people." Also, she reports: Jen Ellis, the mittens' creator, has been crushed by emails from people wanting a pair or two. Don't get ideas: She's not making them any more.Animals interrupting wildlife photographers. Joaquim Campa, who lives in Barcelona, pays attention to photography (he's also the guy who colorized the footage of that 1896 snowball fight in Lyon, France, that you may remember). From time to time he creates Twitter threads, like this one of wildlife photographers getting photo-bombed by their subjects. Don't scroll through while you're eating your cereal unless you're okay with milk up your nose.You know the "Imperial March" from Star Wars? Even on a toaster it sounds ominous. So there's this guy in Finland who programs home appliances to play music (I know, but we all have our talents). And he's pretty brilliant: He's got a whole "Device Orchestra" YouTube channel. Here's his toaster, with toast and a couple of accompanying toothbrushes, channeling the Dark Side. He explains all at the start.

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tea prep. Tinariwen is a globally famous group of Tuareg musicians who would be based in northern Mali if the situation there weren't so dangerous, so—this is sadly fitting—they're a bit nomadic.

and you'll hear why NPR once described their rhythms as "inspired by the gait of camels." 

See you Monday.

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