Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 May 14

= May 14 =

California Electoral College Result (2020)
Hi. I'll preface this by saying that I'm not an English speaker and maybe it was some kind of slang, I certainly didn't quite understand: when the Secretary of State announced the result of the vote cast by the Electoral College, at 0.12 in the link below, what exactly did she say? Thank you very much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ-tXzmMIHk 2.39.110.85 (talk) 11:10, 14 May 2024 (UTC)


 * She announced that there had been 55 "aye" (note that this word is pronounced exactly like the pronoun "I" or the body part "eye".) votes and 0 "no" votes. "Aye" is a word that is uncommon in general English usage, but is often used in the context of voting. It is an affirmative or assenting response. Basically it means "yes". So, 55 people said "yes, I am voting for Biden". --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:43, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * It would have been in common use in the 18th-century at the time of Independence. "Aye" is also used in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It survives in everyday use in some English varieties and dialects, notably Scottish English, and also in Anglophone navies, where "Aye, aye sir!" is the required response to an order. Alansplodge (talk) 15:17, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I've just seen that Wikipedia has Yes and no. Alansplodge (talk) 15:20, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * It doesn't seem to mention the stereotypical New England "ayeh". I don't know whether that still exists, really.  My wife and I were in New England recently to see the eclipse and I don't recall hearing it, but maybe we just didn't talk to the right people. --Trovatore (talk) 20:15, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Trovatore now added. The reference that I found says "chiefly heard in Maine" (not mainly in Maine). Alansplodge (talk) 10:38, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

green fringe
If you look at this pic in full size, you'll see a green fringe to the right edge of the Moon. What made that? Delay between a green-filtered scan and others? —Tamfang (talk) 19:09, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Yes. The EPIC instrument is described as using a filter wheel . That means it captures one channel in one exposure, rotates the wheel, captures the second channel in a second exposure, and so on. You can see a similar pink-purple fringe on the left edge of the Moon, and if you look carefully, a very faint version around the dark craters and other features on the lunar surface. —Amble (talk) 19:35, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Kona low
I've been through many different Kona lows, and one thing I've noticed just by way of keeping an eye on modeling and reporting is that they appear more chaotic and difficult to predict. Is this true? If so, why? Viriditas (talk) 22:19, 14 May 2024 (UTC)
 * More than other types of lows, or more recently than in the past? [I won't be able to answer either way, but the question isn't fully clear to me.] {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.173 (talk) 19:18, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I can't say with any certainty. My question is, is there something about the Kona low that makes it more difficult to predict at a microclimate level?  I've noticed that whenever we get a Kona low, all the forecasting goes out the window.  Is this expected or unique to the phenomenon?  In other words, are stochastic climate models of Kona low systems less accurate than other types of weather events? Viriditas (talk) 19:38, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I thought you were asking whether the coffee maker needed refilling with a particular variety of beans. Phew. MinorProphet (talk) 21:13, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
 * MinorProphet, I have always appreciated your sense of humor. Not everyone has that, so I thank you for it.  Did you know Kona coffee is now more than US$50 a pound? That's nuts to me.  Rumor is that it's getting very difficult to grow now with climate change, pathogens, insects, etc.  I don't think it's all that different elsewhere, now that I think about.  Single origin coffees from Mexico and South America are hovering around US$40 a pound. Viriditas (talk) 19:29, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * I think that's a pont that climate scientists and activists should make a bigger point of. "Act now/Give now or prepare for the end of coffee." --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 21:09, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * They do! There’s been a lot of coverage on this point within the last two years. But, a lot of this is very late.  I first got interested in this subject in the mid to late 1980s, just before Hansen gave his famous testimony to the Senate.  It’s really sad to see how much the oil-controlled governments have dragged their feet on this.  And now the same people are complaining that people aren’t having enough children?  Our leaders don’t get it, and maybe never will.  I am reminded of the famous Upton Sinclair quote (which I have deliberately altered for modernity): "It is difficult to get someone to understand something, when their salary depends on not understanding it."  This seems to be true across the board in government.  A good example is the official poverty measures used by the US government.  It is based on archaic, out of date ideas from 1963 that have zero relevance to the actual world in 2024, and most surprisingly, does not account for what we in the modern world take for granted: "costs related to housing, clothing, transportation, and other expenses commonly considered basic human needs are not considered. And the official measure does not account for variations in the cost of living across the country."  This is what insanity looks like. This means, essentially, that the US government has absolutely no idea who is actually living in poverty, and if that wasn't enough, does not want to know, as proposed congressional legislation that would improve these metrics has been fought by conservatives at every level.  This is occurring now in the US, as "29% of Gen Z and 32% of millennials fear their financial situation could lead to experiencing homelessness".  The government is doing nothing.  The same thing is occurring with climate change and every other problem.  We have a government that is blind and is being led by the blind and cannot do a single thing to help its people.  In other news, just yesterday, a Florida Man signed HB 1645, a bill that bans offshore wind power and "removes most references to climate change in state law", in spite of the fact that 90% of Floridians accept climate change and 69% want the state to take action.  This is what an oil-run oligarchy looks like.  Viriditas (talk) 23:43, 16 May 2024 (UTC)


 * I don't know about Kona lows specifically. Our article doesn't say much about size, but raises the impression that they're quite compact. I do know that weather phenomena get more difficult to predict when they're more compact. That's a consequence of the finite resolution of the computer model used for weather forecast and the finite resolution of input data. I suppose there aren't that many weather stations in the Pacific. PiusImpavidus (talk) 18:32, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Thank you! We've had a Kona low here for a week or so now and things have been really weird.  Hot one moment, cold the next, windy then calm, rain then suddenly dry, etc.  Lots of property owners spent a lot of money to put sandbags out to prevent flooding, but there hasn't been any yet on my island. Viriditas (talk) 19:22, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Huh, that doesn't seem that odd to me. We have weeks like that all the time in NC. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 21:10, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Keep in mind, the Kona low event is not considered normal or usual. I am curious how many times it happens in the Hawaii region per year.  If I had to guess, 2-4 times per year?  I don’t know. Viriditas (talk) 21:20, 16 May 2024 (UTC)
 * You mentioned stochastic forecasting (related to this?), which presumably involves basing forecasts of a weather event on the way previous instances developed. If a type of weather event is infrequent, there will inherently be less data on which to calculate a forecast than for more common events. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.173 (talk) 11:07, 17 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Maybe weather in Hawaii is most of the time more predictable than in most places in the world. PiusImpavidus (talk) 07:49, 17 May 2024 (UTC)