Friday Poem

Environmental & Science Education
Poetry
Art and Environment
Edward Hessler

Greetings from St. Paul on the 195th day of year. Time flies: 54.37% of the year is now in the 2020 ledger. Sunrise is at 5:42 am and sunset at 8:56 pm giving us 15 hours 15 minutes 10 seconds of day length.

On Tuesday this week the highest official temperature ever recorded for the Twin Cities was 108 degrees (14 July 1936). This was during a record North American heat wave. People slept outside to avoid the indoor heat. A/C what although there were electric fans?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was born on this day in 1954 who also happens to have a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry. What a remarkable career and life. Happy Birthday! Today is National Peach Ice Cream Day, not a bad way at all and good excuse if you need one to celebrate her day.

Today's quote is from Michael Osterholm, Director of the UMN's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy on the components of the Covid-19 infection threshold. He has convened a group to develop a consensus statement that could help evaluate the effectiveness of the measures being used to control and contain the spread of the virus. Knowing what it takes to become infected--more than a mere touch or someone passing by--will have many uses. (Christopher Snowbeck ,Star Tribune July 12 but probably behind a paywall)

"Clearly an infectious dose is a function of the concentration of virus in the air that you breathe and the particle size...the virus is in--what you are inhaling. Third is the duration of that exposure in time."

Today's poem is by Nils Peterson.