Daybreak Tuesday 11/16/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

There's high pressure moving in... And we'll get a mostly sunny day, but it's going to feel cold out there, with temps maybe getting above 40, depending where you are, and decent winds from the west. With clear skies tonight, temps will drop to around 20, perhaps into the teens.Look up!

Newbury VT development review board spurns youth facility. The six-bed facility, proposed for a former bed-and-breakfast, is the state's bid to replace the shuttered Woodside Juvenile Center in Essex. Called the Covered Bridge Treatment Center, it would be operated by Becket Family of Services, based in Orford. But on Friday, reports the Valley News's Nora Doyle-Burr, the town's DRB unanimously took issue with the idea as out of keeping with the town plan and Newbury's emergency service capabilities. State officials say they still have to "process and discuss the next steps," a spokesperson tells Doyle-Burr.In pandemic year, sexual misconduct drops a bit at Dartmouth. The college's Title IX office yesterday released the results of two surveys taken in April, one of students, the other of faculty and staff. The student survey found that 10.8 percent of all students reported nonconsensual contact "by force or incapacitation" since entering the college; that compares to 15.8 percent in 2017. The figure was 1.2 percent among faculty and staff; this was the first year they got the survey. Title IX director Kristi Clemens notes it's hard to disentangle the impact of social distancing vs college programming.SPONSORED: William Smith Auctions is excited to bring you our online Pre-Thanksgiving Auction this Saturday. Please join us in person this week during our three days of previews for this auction of fine antiques, silver, Asian art, and more, and for our jewelry auction in December. You can also join Bill for a gallery talk discussing American furniture periods & authenticity tomorrow at 4 pm, or for our extended evening wine & cheese preview on Thursday from 5-7 pm, or join our jewelry specialist Shannon Freeman on Friday from noon-5. We look forward to seeing you. Sponsored by William Smith Auctions.VT won't prosecute Hartford officer in fatal shooting. After a review by VT State Police, the AG's office yesterday announced that Cpl. Eric Clifford "reasonably believed that he was in imminent danger of being killed or suffering great bodily harm" in the August struggle in Hartford Village with Joseph Howard. Clifford, who was wearing a body camera, "remains on paid administrative leave as the town awaits the result of its own external investigation into the shooting," reports the VN's Liz Sauchelli.Dartmouth researchers study why Mozart—actually, one particular piece by Mozart—decreases epileptic activity in the brain. There had been earlier reports that the Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major helped with seizures, DHMC's Dr. Barbara Jobst tells NHPR's Rick Ganley. So she and a team that includes music prof Michael Casey set out to study it, and found that listening to it for at least 90 seconds reduced abnormal brain "spikes" associated with seizure frequency. Next up, they say: Why that is, and whether it points the way to creating "therapeutic music" for people with epilepsy.Put a game camera in an apple orchard... Last week it was a fox. This week, in full glory, it's an Eastern bobcat—their population is coming back, writes Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast. It's the third week of November, and also out there in the woods you'll find hawthorn trees, whose fruit is highly popular with bears, raccoons, porcupines, and others; tamaracks decked out in jaunty yellow; Bruce spanworm moths, which have a few adaptations that let them keep going in November; and witch hazel sepals.Arriving now: Rough-legged hawks. They spend their summers in the Arctic tundra, so winters in these parts are downright balmy. "They look for habitat similar to the open habitat they left–agricultural fields, meadows, and airports fit the bill well," writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog. Their name, she adds, refers to the feathers that cover their legs to the base of their toes, "a clever adaptation for the cold climates they inhabit."Sunday was a heckuva day for rescuers on Mt. Monadnock. It began with an injured hiker near the icy summit around 10:30 am; she was assisted off the mountain by park staff. Then a call came in to NH Fish & Game for a Mass. man who'd fallen at the summit and seriously injured his leg. Rescuers called in a DHART helicopter, but it was unable to fly, so they carried him down through "wet, steep, and slippery trail conditions." And while that rescue was ongoing, a hiker who'd noticed the rescue vehicles and was descending to help slipped and injured herself—badly enough that she was given the next ambulance out.UNH researchers put state's wildlife on camera. That NH is more than 80 percent forested makes it agreeable to fur-bearing animals of all stripes. But for conservationists, all that land makes it challenging to assess the health of those populations. So UNH researchers are developing a system to collect and analyze images from wildlife cameras placed at sites throughout the state, writes Lori Tyler Gula for UNH Daily. While hunting and trapping provide some insights, this project offers a much more robust look at the animals’ abundance and dispersion.Even as more people headed outdoors in NH and VT in 2020, outdoor employment fell. In the Monitor, David Brooks looks at a study from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, which found that the outdoor rec industry added $2.2 billion to NH's economy last year, or 2.6 percent of the gross domestic product; it was 3.7 percent in VT. But where people spent money was away from other people: boating and fishing, biking, RV camping, and off-roading—activities that "require little or no interaction with a business," Brooks notes. Hence a 20 percent drop in outdoor employement in NH, 26 percent in VT."We're trying to crawl back into the dark ages. I really just don't get it." That's Eric Chabot, an energy auditor who contracts with NH's energy efficiency program, NHSaves, talking to NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee about the Public Utilities Commission's decision last week to reject a new efficiency plan. The response among people who help homeowners weatherize their homes and install energy-efficient appliances is universal dismay, Gokee reports. Those who back the decision counter that it will save residential and commercial users money on their electric bills.VT's Covid case rate places it fifth in nation. Though its daily numbers have fallen a bit since last Thursday's record, writes VTDigger's Erin Petenko, its seven-day average of 357 per day—or 57 per 100K population—put it fifth in the country, according to NYT data. At the same time, Petenko notes, hospitalization rates in the state have been holding steady—in fact, the state has the eighth lowest rate in the country, a sign, VT officials say, of the vaccine's efficacy at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.Scott will call back legislature to allow towns to enact mask mandates. In yesterday's announcement, the VT governor said any mandates would have to sunset by the end of April, reports VTDigger's Lola Duffort. And they'd have to be extended month-to-month. It was a grudging step under pressure from Democrats, Duffort writes, and legislative leaders aren't especially enthusiastic, either. “We feel like if this is a step that he’s willing to take, then we’re going to take it. We want towns to have more tools. We’re disappointed that it is not a statewide mandate,” says Senate Pres. Becca Balint.How fast does Elon Musk make what you earn in a year? As of this moment, the Tesla CEO’s net worth is somewhere north of $280 billion, give or take a billion. On a single day last month, Musk’s wealth grew by $36 billion. In the time it’s taken you to read this far—and wrap your head around those figures—he made another $2,000. Wait a sec. Now it's $3,000. If you enjoy the numbing sensation of watching astronomical wealth disparity grow in real time—or are simply curious to see how your annual salary stacks up—take the Elon Musk Earnings Calculator for a frivolous spin.

The numbers...Daybreak reports Covid numbers on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black...

— You know this, of course:

It's the poem that ends "...and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference." But as Daybreak poetry editor Michael Lipson points out, the poem was meant "not as a celebration of the non-conformist or the maverick, but as an ironic comment on how we mythologize our lives in retrospect to turn happenstantial inflection points into heroic choices."

In fact, writes Katherine Robinson for the Poetry Foundation,

the whole thing began as a sort of joke...

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.

Want to catch up on Daybreak music?

Check out the Spotify playlist generously maintained by Sarah and Nelson Rooker.

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

And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! You can subscribe at: 

Thank you!