It’s a seasonably 20*F this morning. I don’t think we will hit the freezing mark today.
And of course my dog insisted on a walk this morning instead of a quick potty break out back! It was hurt your face cold out there at 6am.
More than once, they peaked very early and most of the blossoms were gone when the festival started. The US Park Service does an inventory of the budding trees (not sure what percentage are sampled) in order to predict when the blossoms will start and when they expect to peak. For anyone contemplating coming here for the cherry blossoms, each tree species will actually bloom at a slightly different time and duration. There are more cherry trees at the National Arboretum has some late-blooming cherries.
Thinking of the potential DC get-together, in addition to the pretty trees, consider a monument walk - there are a number in the general are of the tidal basin. Another possibility is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (June 27–July 1 and July 4–8, 2018) and will spotlight Armenia, Catalonia and various places in Africa.
I think early Spring would be a great time for a photo meet up. Maybe late March? For me, I'd want to do the monuments both at night and during golden hour. If we don't get a group for a TPF meet up, I'll probably still visit - I have a cousin in Alexandria.
We should start thinking about it soon...I'd love to be able to join, but I'll have to be strategic with my wife, the cost, and the transportation, haha. Ideally, I'd be able to buy a cheap train ticket and find a cheap airbnb.
Can anyone explain (in a very simple manner) what bitcoin is and how it can be "mined"?
I don't understand the whole thing, but it's a "crypto currency" in that it is used in exchange for goods and services, on the internet. I don't get the mining part, but understand it now requires a pretty powerful computer / graphics card.
Thank you snow and smoke.
So, after a little bit of research, I still don't understand what it is.
BUT! It seems to now require it's own dedicated hardware (which needs to be replaced with newer hardware occasionally to have the most efficient hardware to keep up with everyone else), which is pretty expensive. It also requires a lot of energy input and cooling requirements.
So, it seems that after spending the initial $$$ on hardware, the normal O&M costs would essentially be electricity (and the occasional hardware upgrade).
Apparently, right now, 1 bitcoin is about $17,000. But, when mining, it's not like you "mine" at full bitcoins, you mine at very small percentages of a single bitcoin. In addition, bitcoin seems to be somewhat volatile, so there's no guarantee regarding return of investment. I played around with some ROI calculators, and it seems like within a couple months, you'd have paid off your initial investment of hardware--assuming what you earn in bitcoin can actually be exchanged or used.
If I had the money to throw around, I'd like to try it to see what it's about, but (1) I don't have the money, haha, and (2) it seems that with the amount of people probably already playing around with it already, and the risk involved with volatility and hackers/etc, it's definitely not worth cost, time, or effort.
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