Daybreak Thursday 9/30/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Cool, kinda raw. Well, fall's definitely here. There's lingering low pressure to our northeast, and there's a slight chance of showers this morning, with clouds taking up most of the sky for a good bit of the day. Highs today will only reach the mid-50s, and drop to about 40 tonight. Winds today from the north.Of course, this hasn't kept migrating monarchs from fueling up. Here's one among the flowers along the road by the Dartmouth Organic Farm, from Lori Harriman.D-H will wait on boosters. "As a result of our staffing shortage, our current flu vaccine clinics, and our ongoing COVID-19 vaccine clinics (for patients who have never been vaccinated or who require a third dose due to a weakened immune system)," the hospital wrote in a vaccine update yesterday, "it may take a few weeks for us to expand vaccination appointments to provide COVID-19 booster shots." For those who fall into the recommended categories—65 and older, underlying conditions, etc, who got the Pfizer shot initially—they have links to the state vaccine websites, or you can call 211 for information.Brewery to leave Springfield VT for Brattleboro. Vermont Beer Makers, which got its start as Trout River Brewing in 1996, plans to build a new $3 million brewery and tap room in Brattleboro and leave its Springfield digs, reports Paul Cuno-Booth in the Brattleboro Reformer. The brewery is owned in part by Paul Belogour, who owns the Reformer and the Bennington Banner. "Paul's been great at trying to find different solutions here in Springfield,” says general manager Kelen Beardsley. “But with everything that he has going on down in Brattleboro, it just made sense to do something down at that location.”SPONSORED: The doors and hearts of St. Thomas are open to you. Join us each week in Hanover for joyful worship, fellowship, and faith. In-person services (and streamed online) are held Sundays at 8am and 10am. Adult education programs are offered each Sunday at 9am. And this Sunday you are invited to bring your pet to be blessed at 10am as we celebrate St. Francis. All are welcome to be part of this caring community. Find out more at www.saintthomashanover.org. Sponsored by St. Thomas Episcopal Church.Dartmouth "may be the smallest of the Ivy League schools, but when it comes to wireless technology, it’s a giant." That's Vikki Lipset writing in Wi-Fi Planet about the college's move to make voice-over-internet widely available on campus. Tomorrow, it will start rolling out "softphones"—software for PCs and smartphones that allows them to make telephone calls over the internet—to freshmen. Ultimately, the school plans to make the service available to all students, faculty, and staff. "It takes a community to make an artist." That was Norwich photographer Kip King talking last week about the "Local Color" exhibit at Artistree, in S. Pomfret. The exhibit, which runs into November, showcases the "highly collaborative Artistree community," writes Gareth Henderson on his Omni Reporter blog. He offers a small sneak peak of what's on the walls.Vaccine protesters commandeer, shut down NH Exec Council. While it's not unusual for them to show up at meetings, yesterday they “numbered in the dozens” and “effectively took over,” reports Alli Fam on NHPR. The protesters, representing groups that oppose statewide Covid vaccination efforts, “took to the room and gave long speeches” to delay the Council’s vote on federal funding contracts that would expand those efforts—and they succeeded. The meeting was canceled when the protesters, according to Gov. Sununu, became “unruly” and state employees had to be ushered from the room.  NH needs $1 billion in water infrastructure improvements; state urges municipalities to use federal relief funds. In a webinar yesterday, reports Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin, Erin Holmes of the Dept of Environmental Services said that communities need some $450 million for drinking water infrastructure and $550 million for wastewater, and that many of the projects are eligible for American Rescue Plan Act funding—though Gokee writes, "The money has to be spent by 2026, which could be a problem given the lack of engineers and construction crews to carry out the work by that deadline."Should bear hunting with trained hounds be outlawed in VT? That's one goal of Stowe-based advocacy group Protect Our Wildlife (POW). Kevin McCallum’s sprawling piece in Seven Days investigates the controversial practice, among others. POW’s leader Barbara Galdenzi calls it “barbaric.” Many in the hunting community, including VT Fish & Wildlife leaders, disagree, saying the traditions are necessary for predator population management. Andrew French of VT’s 40,000-acre Conte National Refuge hopes both sides can find common ground on habitat conservation. “If people want to protect our wildlife, they should be working to protect land for wildlife and for people.”VT colleges will join under Vermont State University banner. The state college system's trustees voted last night to adopt the name for the combined Vermont Technical College, Castleton University, and Northern Vermont University. The fourth set of colleges in the system, Community College of Vermont, will remain as is. The vote came despite protests by some students and alums, writes Jack Lyons in VTDigger."One of the tendencies of professional historians is to only write for other historians. I don't want to do that." In her latest Author, Can I Ask You? podcast, writer Joni Cole talks to historian Joseph Ellis, author of numerous books on the era of America's founding. His latest, The Cause, looks at the roadblocks in the way of becoming the united states, and at the problems the signers didn't resolve, including slavery. He and Cole talk about the importance of finding the story in history, and about how, as Ellis puts it, "the 18th century is a foreign country...It speaks with its own accent and it thinks differently.""The Greenland ice sheet is so massive that it generates its own gravity." In a bravura piece of reporting and writing, Tony Bartelme, a reporter for the Charleston, SC Post and Courier, traveled to Greenland to trace the impact of the melting ice sheet on his state's coastline. "What happens in Greenland in the future will largely determine the Lowcountry’s fate," he writes—and he might as well be writing about the entire East Coast. The issues are big, so he starts small: in a WWII-era DC-3 flying over the world’s fastest-moving glacier with a NASA climate scientist. Who is also an Elvis impersonator.

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So. Are we hard-wired for music? A dozen years ago, at the World Science Festival in NYC, singer Bobby McFerrin took part with a panel of scientists to discuss that question. But McFerrin isn't a sit-back-and-chat type of guy. So he made his point—that the answer is yes—by 

You just have to see it—it's 3 minutes out of your day. And it's pretty magical.

See you tomorrow.

Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt         Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                    About Tom                                 About Michael

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