Daybreak Wednesday 7/29/20

WHAT A MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Sunny, slightly cooler... That cold front that came through yesterday definitely helped, though some moist air returned to the region last night, making things less perfect than they could have been. Still, it will be mostly sunny today, highs in the mid-80s, not too uncomfortable. Slight chance of rain or thunder in the evening. Winds from the southwest, temps back into the mid-60s tonight. And speaking of an overview of the weather... Here's a shot of early-morning fog over Quechee last week, taken by Lisa Lacasse with her drone.Meanwhile...

So just why have VT's numbers been so low? It's had fewer cases than any other state in the country, Bill McKibben notes in The New Yorker. True, it's sparsely populated and it's mostly white, facing a disease that affects people of color disproportionately. But he thinks social trust and neighborliness have a lot to do with it, too. "Vermont is among the least religious states in the Union, but its citizens have a highly ingrained love for their neighbors that keeps them in face coverings even now that the risk is truly small," he writes.Windsor school board opts to fire principal over Facebook post. The move to let Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley go over her controversial Black Lives Matter comment came Monday evening and was announced by board chair Elizabeth Burrows in an emailed statement too late to catch yesterday's press reports. It came the same day, the VN's Anna Merriman notes, that the school district asserted in a court filing that Riley's claim she'd been unfairly dismissed was false, in part because she hadn’t been fired yet. The board will hold a "termination" hearing within 15 days before making a final decision.Dartmouth releases quarantine guidelines for students. For their first 48 hours on campus or until they get a negative Covid test, whichever is later, they can leave their rooms only to use the restroom; food will be delivered. From days 3-14, they can go outside to the dining halls, for solo exercise, or for sanctioned outdoor activities; guests, visitors, and gathering in groups are prohibited. College spokesperson Diana Lawrence tells The Dartmouth that students will also sign a “community expectations agreement.” "We brought bats white-nosed syndrome. Bats brought us COVID-19." Writer and naturalist Ted Levin muses about the bat he finds behind his barn door in Thetford, an "ambassador from Deep Time, born in the evolutionary cleft left by dinosaurs. A radical mammal that incorporated flight." Bats' physiology, he notes, is now thought to create an environment hospitable to viruses, "which linger indefinitely or are delivered to more susceptible mammals." Just one reason, he writes, why bats should not be "commodities."Hanover startup's mental-health app gains steam during pandemic. The Granite State News Collaborative's Kelly Burch takes a look at Trusst, the text-messaging app built by Dartmouth psychologist and researcher Bill Hudenko. Based on his team's research suggesting that messaging clinicians could improve outcomes for people with mental illness, Trusst is building out a network of employers (including King Arthur) and universities using it to give employees and students 24-hour access to therapists. Affordable housing to expand in Hartford. New federal dollars will let Twin Pines Housing Trust move forward with two projects, the VN's Tim Camerato writes. One will bring four apartments to a former tire and auto repair shop on Route 5 across from Datamann; the other will add 17 townhouse apartments to the Wentworth Community Housing complex off Sykes Mountain Ave.Flying cars move one step closer to NH's roads. Under a bill signed last week by Gov. Chris Sununu, the state will create a commission to study the on-road usage of "non-traditional vehicles"; the commission's report is due in November, 2021. “There was nothing on the books that would have allowed this type of vehicle on the road,” Rep. Sherman Packard tells NHPR. “To allow them to even exist in New Hampshire we had to pass this type of legislation.” NH is home to two companies developing the vehicles.VT schools will start September 8. Normally, the state's school districts set the specifics of their calendars, but at a press conference yesterday, Gov. Phil Scott and Ed Secy Dan French announced that under a new executive order, schools will reopen a week later than many had planned. Districts are still trying to figure things out, VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen and Lola Duffort note, and as that recent public email from Harwood superintendent Brigid Nease suggested, administrators remain uneasy. Curious about how the Vermont candidates are doing on fundraising? VTDigger just made it easier. You can get the numbers from the secretary of state's office, but just one candidate and contribution at a time. Digger's built a campaign finance portal that lets you compare totals for the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, gauge how much of their money has come from donors contributing under and over $100, and see who's been giving how much. They'll be updating it as the election gets closer.More ideas for hitting the road (relatively) close to home. Seven Days has been highlighting things to go see in these parts, and next up: strolling the fields or walking the lavender labyrinth at Lavender Essentials of Vermont in Derby, with a shout-out to Cedar Circle's pick-your-own flower field; Dog Mountain in St. J, with the gallery and dog chapel created by the late artist Stephen Huneck; and several drive-ins around the state, including Bethel and Fairlee—which, as they point out, "are mixing up newer fare with older favorites that many younger viewers have never seen on a big screen."And thanks to Woodstock's Anna Megyesi, you'll see a new message on the highways. She's the winner of a contest dreamed up by VTrans and WCAX for a new slogan on those orange-lit highway safety signs. Her entry? "What’s your hurry? You’re in Vermont!" As she tells WCAX, "If somebody whizzes by me, I’m like, ‘Dude, what’s your hurry? You’re in Vermont. We’re here already. You know, just enjoy it.’"Buoy-filching walruses, shrieking skuas, and an accordion-playing, paragliding crew member named Sasha. At the age of 51, Andrea Pitzer headed to the remote Arctic island where Dutch polar explorer William Barents and his crew were trapped by sea ice during the summer of 1596; Barents died after they abandoned ship and tried to get home in small boats. Pitzer's working on a book about Arctic explorers, and took passage from Murmansk on a 60-foot Russian yacht called the Alter Ego. "My Midlife Crisis as a Russian Sailor," just up in Outside, is the result.Cinnabar, lapis lazuli, and Indian yellow revisited. It may feel like an eternity, but it's only been three months since Daybreak linked to three memorable essays by Philip Ball about how artists and craftsmen have produced the three primary colors over the ages. Now he's brought them together in one place, in a strikingly illustrated article in The Public Domain Review. If you missed them the first time, or just want to relive the mango-leaf-eating cows of Monghyr, here's your chance.

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The Japanese-American violinist and multi-faceted artist Kishi Bashi "maintains a deep and ultimately hopeful fascination with the way humans do and don't take care of each other," as NPR once put it.

 his remarkable 2019 music video (with animation by Julia and Mike McCoy), focuses on WWII internment camps as a way of reminding us that bigotry and fear can bring this country to some pretty dark places, and that the human spirit is, nonetheless, capable of healing and rebuilding.

(Thanks, SVG!)

See you tomorrow.

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