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My Email to the Army Corp of Engineers Managing the Francis E. Walter Dam Usage Re-Evaluation

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It’s typical that the tone of a project is set at the beginning. Projects can be set out in an open fashion where affected parties feel they are being included and that their input is valued; or, projects can have a hidden agenda where information is dribbled out with the hope that the project has enough momentum that by the time affected folks figure out what’s going on, it’s too late to change course. Unfortunately, this project appears to be of the latter type.  Although the official ‘first’ meeting announcement states: ‘The study will focus primarily on flood risk management, with consideration to environmental, water supply, water quality, and recreation, to identify possible improvements to the existing structure, infrastructure, and operations that will support the current and future demands within the region. The study will include public comment opportunities and public meetings, which will be announced on this webpage and through other avenues.‘ If one understands that
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Making a Roland Accordion Sing in Different Voices

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My dad bought a Roland FR-4X. This is an electronic accordion that is basically a synthesizer in accordion clothing. Being the family member that's supposed to know stuff about technology, dad asked me to figure out how to set different musette sounds, and assign them to those buttons above the keys so they could be accessed easily. There's a bit of digging to do to figure this out. Also, the mean time to forget the process is probably 15 minutes so I thought I'd document it here. First of all, a musette tuning means that specific reed sets are tuned away from standard (440) pitch. There are tuning for German musette, French musette, and probably a bunch more. I'm not a folk player so my accordions aren't tuned this way; but many accordion players use it. In fact, there is a style of playing and specific music called  'musette style'. The respected instrument tuner manufacturer  Peterson  has specific presets for folks wanting to tune accordions in a mu
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THE BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE AND THE WEISSPORT TRAIL

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The Bridge to Somewhere, the Weissport Trail, and Protecting a Good Thing This summer I spent a good deal of time biking the section of the D&L trail through the Lehigh Gorge State Park between Glen Onoko and Rockport. That section of trail accommodates a lot of bike traffic. One afternoon I counted 102 bikes coming towards me between Glen Onoko and Penn Haven Junction - about a six mile section. This was in my mind the first time I rode from Jim Thorpe over the new pedestrian bridge towards Weissport. It struck me that if the traffic in the glen gets reflected down into the  Weissport trail, we may have a problem. But its solvable. The Weissport section of trail is unique. For much of its length, there's water in the canal. The trail winds between the Lehigh river and the canal. There are a couple water crossings on the trail (the exact number depends on how much water is in the canal). The canal is used for fishing, picnicking and general relaxing. So t
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