RDM

Not sure I follow the syntax of the part in bold about "not going to be able to under report deaths from the virus". If they are not going to be able to under report, does that default to they will be over reporting deaths? Not trying to be sarcastic, just trying to understand the point you're making. It's was interesting to watch the growth of new cases in the equatorial strip of Africa and the Indian subcontinent over the last 24 hours. Same for Central and South American and the Caribbean - all have experienced significant growth in the number of cases. Wonder if the growth in these warmer and even tropical climates is catching the eye of CDC etc.

Agree with some of the reference to warmer areas, but there's exceptions to this too. The majority of the warmer climates in the world are also among the poorest where access to reliable testing is going to be marginal at best for a long time. And the stats on the Johns Hopkins Heat Map are based solely on verified test results, which are significantly less than the number of actual cases. The stats for India and Africa are the prime examples of what is most likely under reporting. Stats in African and the Indian sub-continent are currently well behind much of the rest of the world. That said, the stats starting to ramp up 2 days ago. From a temperature perspective, the northern tier of the subcontinent is still in transition from cool winter/spring temps (it does get below freezing in the winter in Delhi - DJF) to what we would call summer-like temps in the south. If we look at South America and Australia also, their stats have grown significantly over the last couple of days and Australia is just entering Fall along the southern coast. As for China, their data integrity must be objectively questioned and significantly so. Just as they deployed the largest quarantine in history, they also have the ability to control the data/stats. They actively control all nodes of Internet traffic in and out of China with an acute level of precision most can't contemplate. Experienced a similar level of domain control albeit with the "free" press in India when I lived there in the 90's. We had an outbreak of pneumonic plague in 94. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_plague_in_India They voluntarily evacuated the US Embassy as the news consumed all forms of information services at the time (largely pre-Internet except for a few). The story went from consuming entire sections of the Delhi Times on a Friday to nothing two days later. Not a whimper. In reality, the Indian political machine clamped down on the press and it just went away - like that. Was a pretty amazing thing to live through at the time. Actual deaths were wayyy higher than those acknowledged in the official reporting. Nothing above is intended to demean or question what we're facing with this pandemic. Hopefully, the US will rise to the occasion and group together to bring to bear the best of what we can muster. My fear is the current political climate will continue to undermine attempts to do so.

Thanks. Can relate to what you mean about the "heavy hard stuff". My childhood home in Ohio was built in 1880, my brother's home not far away in 1860 (and my brother and his family are only the 3 occupants since 1860!). In both structures, they used real wood that is nearly impossible to drive a nail into. In the early 80's when I was still at home we built a large detached garage addition at my parent's home for my dad's fire museum (all from the hand-pulled era of firefighting). Dad thought he'd save some money and add a little nostalgia to the interior of the museum by using some reclaimed wood from a local barn tear-down. It was rough sawn oak - rough dimensioned. We used it for the studs on the ground floor. Only after getting the walls up and second floor trusses in place did we realize today's modern nails would not cut it. It took a dozen or so tries before we got the first 16 penny nail to go in. We ended up having to drill every single hole by hand for the outside sheathing and firebreaks. It was funny at first how hard that stuff was. The novelty of it wore off fast when you have to drill several hundred nail holes by with an electric drill (properly undersized of course to provide good grip). That stuff was literally tougher than nails.

Couldn't agree more on the truss spacing and walls and the roof slope. Never understood the logic in using measly 5/8" sheathing too. Yea, it saves a few bucks, but why not go for full 3/4" tig and have a roof that will really hold up? Not sure if you remember the fiasco around NOVA in the late 80's with the delaminating roof sheathing? Impacted a lot of developments put up in the late 70's and early/mid 80's. Because 5/8" is so thin, when there's a bad batch and/or void in the lamination the weakness in 5/8" exasperates the situation whereas 3/4 has a much greater ability to compensate for any manufacturing voids. On the roof slope, in some cases design and/or geometry drives a flatter slope. However, the steeper the roof the stronger with a far less tendency to have ice dam issues. Still curious what sort of construction standards they have in the GL snow belt to compensate for the snow load. If we had 4 feet of snow on the roofs around here the impact would be terrible. We saw some of that in 2010 with some collapses and damage due to ice damming. Our code is for an ice dam layer as well around here, 2 rows if the pitch is 4-12 or flatter. But we all know how that goes...

Just curious - Do you know if they have special building codes up there in the snow belt? Normal 24" rafters with 5/8" sheathing won't withstand that sort of repeated snow loading on a flat pitched roof. Not trolling here - always wondered if their code has extra factors built in. Tks

Wow - now THAT is an excellent shot. Fantastic. One to remember. Appreciate your narrative about the event. We're all hanging on every report...

Just came in from getting diesel for my Kubota. The stiff NW wind is a bit nippy. Looking at the NWS radar, looks like the fetch off of Ontario is still nailing NY and the Tug Plateau. Rochester is about to get hit by a nice band... lucky devils.

Congratulations. That's quite something to be proud of. I feel for you re the tuition. Our daughter graduated from W&M last May. That was $140K... With your daughter's intellect, SAT and other skills, maybe Temple will work with you some... Good luck.

Indeed - around Dayton we set a number of records for that period. Besides not getting above freezing for the month of Jan, believe there was a stint when we didn't get above the single digits for well over a week. That really took its toll on about everything. On the coldest morning of the period (-27F) my sister's Dodge Omni clutch cable broke. Got a new cable and fixed it outside on our driveway with a snowmobile suit on. Froze my arsh off. Was only about 130 lbs then, vice 270 now. Recall when it warmed up there were major issues with ice flows/jams on the GLs and the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and their tributaries. Lots of flooding from the ice dams. Recall them dropping charges from helicopters on the Ohio to break up the piles.

Haha - believe it or not, I remember that story in 77. Remember the cutter having to go out after them when the ice they were on broke off and stranded them. I think we had around -28F IVO Dayton. We never got above freezing nearly the entire month of Jan. I The cold in 77 raised havoc with municipal infrastructure too. In Ohio building code for water lines and building footers is 4 feet below grade to help avoid frost heave, vice 2 feet below grade around here. That year the frost line got down way below 4 feet, which cracked foundations and burst water mains. Remember the facilities guys in our little town had constant issues repairing busted mains, and the flooding that occurred. The elevated water tower in town froze over too, which had never happened before (according to the really old timers). The overflow nearly destroyed a couple nearby homes. The impact of extreme temps as you approach or exceed -30F can be surprising. Then the year after 77 we had the grand ole blizzard of 78....

That's about the annual LES schedule I remember too growing up. Michigan would freeze over earlier than Erie, which would shut off our options for getting squalls where I lived. Even down by Dayton we'd sometimes pickup some decent LES qualms that could accumulate over a day or two, even given the distance from the GLs. Not sure, but I don't think Erie froze over solid this year.

I'm schizophrenic in how to respond. One part of me says "Awesome!" and the other part is jealous as hell and has nothing but contempt for how awful this year has been... So close, but so far away. The mere fact the LES machine is in high gear the end of Feb, due to the lack of anything frozen on Erie and Ontario, is more testimony to this year's lack of cold. Normally the LES machine dies down in Dec or early Jan as the lakes freeze over or at least the water temp cools. Water temps in Erie are several degrees warmer than normal which is helping fuel the fetch. My relatives back Dayton, Ohio even got some LES squalls yesterday off of lake Michigan. Very rare for this time of year. Enjoy the spectacle up there and please keep the videos coming....

Sounds great. I've heard of Corbett's in ski magazines. Sounds something like the run from the backside of Zermatt, Switzerland down to Cervina, Italy. Hands down THE best run I've ever been on, anyplace, ever. (although some of the heli-ski runs in NZ were comparable). The run to Cervina is several thousand feet of vertical on a somewhat consistent slope about 100-150 yds wide. It's wide enough it doesn't get carved up. I love long wide runs with about a 20 degree slope. Often tele-ski w/o poles and get down low almost like a snowboarder. Use hard shell kneepads to protect from hard impact. My tele-boards are old skinny boards - 205's. They look way out of place with today's short-wide carving skis. Can't use wide carving skis because I still use leather tele boots - can strap ice crampons on them and/or tele cleats to climb steep slopes where skins alone are not enough. Making me get the itch to get back out again, but at nearly 60, not sure my knees will take it...

Excellent video PSU. Makes me want to get back out on the slopes. The snow encrusted pine trees at the 2:00 mark remind me of Zao in Japan. Zao is known for their "Snow Monsters" which are the top 10-20 feet of pines sticking out of the snow. The area around Zao is one of the snowiest places on earth. Interesting thread about the altitude and folks getting sick. How is the difficulty of the runs at JH? I've heard JH vies with Whistler Blackcomb BC for having the most vertical in North America - around 4000' or so, yes? The snow looks great. The runs appear fairly flat cruiser type runs for a large part. Like the part in the trees - a past favorite of mine. I'm a tele-mark skier myself. Spent most of my younger days on 3 pin bindings throughout the Alps, in Japan with a stint on the South Island in New Zealand. The Alps have the most vertical by far - with Zermatt and Chamonix offering around 8500' of vertical. Japan has phenomenal snow depth and quality (skied down Mt Fuji on pins too - that was fun - it pretty steep at the top). New Zealand is a must visit for the heli-ski expert. Their back country is pure unspoiled wilderness and the Kiwis really know how to have fun.

ROTFLMAO. Great video. Reminds me of the last time I drank too much Apfelkorn and/or Ebblewoi (apple wine in Frankfurt old German dialect). Stuff goes down so smooth... You don't realize the impact until you try to stand up and wonder what's wrong with your legs.

OMG - PBR... Almost as bad as Old Dog Light (Old Milwaukee Light). Brings back memories of college - those parts that I remember anyway. Right down there as well were Hudepohl and Micky's Big Mouth... Couldn't afford the "good" stuff like MGD. Still remember when Coors first became available in Ohio in the late 70's. What a momentous event that was...

Haha - Think I know which cartoon you are talking about. I'm a big fan of Far Side. Was the end of an era when Gary Larson retired. The oddities of how he looked at real world events was a big part of my collegiate and early professional careers. As for the devil's prodding... just leaving well enough alone and not opening either door was never a consideration. The "guy" just HAD to open one of them. Just like "Let's Make a Deal" and Monty Hall.

Darn - No rest for the weary with what you and the other mods deal with. Damned if you do and same if you don't. Once the cat is out of the bag it's hard to get it back in there...

Rgr - see your point and don't disagree. My comments were more in general over the past several weeks, as more eloquently captured by Showme. As for the mods, I'm a bit loath to ask the mods to police what we should be able to mind ourselves. It's just subjective on where the line lies between reasonable side-bars and too much. Wouldn't mind diving into any of the off-topic subjects listed - love exotic cars and having lived in Germany for 6+ years had some interesting experiences there on the Autobahn. Like the time I was behind 30+ Ferraris southbound on A5 by Mannheim in my little Honda Civic with my 100+ year old high wheel bike strapped to the roof... but I digress.

Your part in bold says what I was thinking better. That's exactly how it felt a few times recently in the MR/LR. Had to double check which thread I was in several times thinking maybe I'd clicked on the the wrong one with hopes the "real" MR/LR would have more meat to it and "hope". Certainly not pointing fingers at anyone as we're all tired of chasing unicorns. Your comments are invariably worth reading as part of the core contributors of this forum. We are all better off from the mentoring and analysis your posts provide. Keep em coming whenever you can! I'm still learning and have been for 20 years + dating back to Eastern. Since I know my analysis is not up to par I may err on the overly conservative in not cluttering up the MR/LR. When I have a banter-like comment to a comment in the LR I move it here, be it worthwhile reading or not.

Don't feel it's an exaggeration, but that's a subjective thing. Yes, there is some decent analysis and that is always good to see and learn from. A substantial amount is off topic too and it adds up. Not calling out the mods here at all, they more than enough to do and shouldn't be bothered. Likewise, realize we're not in storm mode (unfortunately), but stand by the opinion much of it is/was banter. Just prefer it to be here where it belongs so we we see there's a lot of unread msgs in the MR/LR it means something...

Sad how the Med/Long Range dialogue has gone down the tubes. Even with nothing on the horizons, many check periodically with hope. When you see a substantial number of unread threads the temptation to muster a glimmer of hope is dashed when you realize the preponderance of posts is more stuff about dandelions, pest control and similar unrelated hoopla that should be here in banter. Sure is disappointing. Would rather there be nothing in the Med/LR than to have to weed through that "stuff" only to realize it should be here. Please folks, if there's nothing to track then let the thread lie and die in peace.

Heck of an end to the NC/Duke game. Wow.

Now THAT'S funny! Why on earth does he give a sh!t where his sh!t falls and how? There MUST be some particular reason why a hippo has developed such a finely tuned capability to spread his sh!t in such a refined manner. Can't say I've seen that before, but how often do we have the chance to observe first-hand how a hippo disperses their sh!t? If only hippos lived on the Galapagos Islands then Darwin probably would have developed a theory...

Yup - agree on all points. Couldn't agree more with the desire for a more middle-ground approach to things. Like Ronnie used to do with both sides of the isle in Congress. I remember mandatory desegregation busing in the 60's, to include some pretty infamous riots, the debate over Elvis and his stint on Ed Sullivan, Woodstock, the draft, pot, abortion, etc. All very emotional for man and many of those topics still are. But it seems worse now than ever. My family and I returned from an extended stint overseas immediately prior to Obama's election and the divisive nature of our culture took us back and seems to have gone downhill further in the last 10 years. I've learned a lot from reading this thread, the length of which underscores how dire our winter weather situation has become. If we just had something/anything to track, would conjure a guess we would have all let this one die a long time ago - me too. Hard to contemplate a good ole Jeb walk when it's nearly 70F outside...