If hard facts, for instance numbers, are not relevant to a discussion they ought not be there; if they are relevant they ought to be right. In last week's front page article about the June solstice and pagan celebrations it was stated that on June 20th the Sun will rise at 5:22 a.m. (EDT) and set at 8:36 p.m. Quite right (for the Ellenville vicinity.) But the sentence continues to say that comes to fourteen hours and fifty-three minutes of daylight.

Notice that the times are given in numbers while the length of day is spelled out in words. And it is wrong. Innumeracy has cloaked a miscalculation. From 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. is 15 hours. From :22 to :36 is 14 minutes. The length of the day is 15 hours and 14 minutes, not 14:53.

Further the article states that the June solstice is the longest day of the year. Well, in the southern hemisphere it is the shortest day of the year. The terms "summer solstice" and "June solstice" are not interchangeable. (And though the Celtics could not have known this, it turns out that the Sun God is not gestating from Halloween until the December solstice, "he" has moved "his" operation to the southern hemisphere.)

Another misdirection "... there are many who celebrate the solstices, both of them, as well as all equinoxes." This leads a reader to believe that there are more than two equinoxes.

Elsewhere in the paper it is stated that "Summer Solstice is celebrated June 20 this year." This gives the impression that the June solstice is like Easter, Labor Day, or Thanksgiving — that humans decide when to have the celebration. But it is a precise moment of time — an astronomical moment. This year it occurred at 6:34 on June 20th. In the looser definition as, not a moment, but the day during which that moment occurs, we would say that the solstice is June 20th this year. (It is June 20th on leap years and on June 21st otherwise.)

In yet another article a USC social scientist, Daphna Oyserman, tells us (about savings) that "people tend to underestimate the value of compound interest. " How many years in the past is this scholar living? Compound interest is worse than valueless here and now. Given even the minimal inflation we are said to be experiencing and the miniscule interest rates, one's compounded savings are worth less in purchasing power than they were when you socked them away. Saving or not saving is an important issue, but the people are correct about the value of compound interest. Smart money managers know that this is a good time to be in debt if you can do so at low interest rates and do something of more value with the money.

That author also equates spending more time on homework and pursuing better grades with success. Kind of self-serving for a college professor. In some courses it may be true but if savings are as important as she says, perhaps they might begin with saving the cost (in some cases as much as a quarter of a million dollars) of a college education and pursuing learning in other arenas where the expense is negligible, or in the case of apprenticeship and "training" jobs a time of earning while learning.

There is much of value in some academic areas but the best description of college for many students is a four-year vacation between mandatory schooling and the responsibility of earning a livelihood. It is the people employed at the "academic resorts" who tell us otherwise.

Bob Prener
Grahamsville

Senator John J. Bonacic, chair of the New Senate's gambling committee, announced on June 7 (NY Times) the Legislature is ready to legalize, regulate, and tax Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) betting. Leaving aside questions about the wisdom of still more gambling expansion in the State, don't new forms of gambling violate the State's constitutional ban on gambling, except those permitted by virtue of Constitutional Amendments? It's no problem, says Bonacic. "It's not gambling" because DFS betting is a game of skill, not chance. What a brazen assault on common sense. Any sports fan knows of the inescapable role of chance and randomness in sports events and player performances. Don't activities commonly regarded as gambling — poker, blackjack, betting on horses, involve skill, even great skill, without ceasing to be gambling?

Arnie Lieber, M.D.
Saugerties

Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Chad, Nigeria, Morocco, Libya, England, Belgium, France, Israel, Syria, Iraq and the United States all have one thing in common — people have been killed by Muslims for being infidels.

President Obama and his fellow liberals need to acknowledge that, with the exception of the U.S., the Republican Party and NRA don't exist in any of these countries, but radical Islam does.

Islam means submission and there's a percentage of Muslims who believe it's their religious duty through jihad to bring the entire world under the Caliphate by any means. While we are not at war with Islam, there are some followers of Islam who are at war with all non-believers. Islam started in the Arabian Peninsula around 640 AD. By 732 AD, it had spread over the Middle East, all of North Africa, Spain and Portugal. This was not done by conversion, but by conquest. The Battle of Tours stopped its spread into the rest of Europe.

John Habersberger
New Paltz

When U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stated that the Orlando massacre wasn't about guns I was incredulous.

So what were the massacres in Sandy Hook, San Bernardino and Orlando about? In each tragic incident an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle was used. The role of government is to keep its citizens safe. Graham's pander to avoid disapproval from the NRA is disingenuous and dangerous. We don't need this weapon of war in the hands of any citizens.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., characterized the shooting as just another day of gun violence by saying, unfortunately, it was Orlando's turn. No other country in the world has lost so many citizens through gun violence because they have strict laws that work. Since 1970, more Americans have died from guns than all the Americans who died in wars going back to the American Revolution — 1.45 million that is 92 bodies a day — according to columnist Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., even uses the NRA as an excuse not to give Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing and an up-or-down vote because, he says, he can't imagine that a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate would want to confirm a nominee opposed by the NRA. Chris Cox, an NRA lobbyist and the right-hand man to NRA Executive Vice President Wayne Lapierre, said he has no interest in accepting an invitation to come to the White House to talk. When did we elect the NRA to represent us?

Prayers for the victims are empty when our representatives refuse to have the courage to do something substantive about gun violence in this country.

Nancy Guski
Red Hook

Time to face facts. Government can't protect you from violence. Whether it's a so-called mass shooting, domestic assault, a street robbery or any other violent act, government isn't going to be there when you need it. You'll be on your own.

And when violence happens, government proposes, after the fact, more control and more loss of personal liberty as a solution. Banning tactical rifles and limiting magazine capacity was the law of the land between 1994 and 2004. Researchers subsequently could find no discernible benefit from the ban as far as decreasing crime rates or lowering the rate of mass shootings.

Time to try something different. Those with concealed-carry permits have already been vetted as law-abiding citizens. Let's have government spring loose some of that wasted taxpayer money and give it to the NRA to make tactical and firearm safety training low-cost or free. Let's have government subsidize the cost of ammunition so we can practice the skills necessary to make a difference.

At the very least, don't make useless laws that hamper us and threaten our safety. Just stay out of the way.

Hank Yost
Kingston

As Ulster County reviews proposals and considers contracts of tourist rail vendors for expanded rail operations in Kingston and Phoenicia (Shandaken), County officials have a legal and fiscal responsibility to scrutinize all proposals and companies carefully including the one from the Catskill Mountain Railroad Company (CMRR) if there is one.

In the final two years of its 25-year lease of the U&D corridor CMRR showed that themed train events can be successful in Kingston. But CMRR also has a well-documented history of flouting and ignoring contractual agreements with Ulster County. This includes both the terms of the 1991 Lease and now apparently the recent Litigation Settlement Agreement as well.

Recently, CMRR ran passenger trains (euphemistically called "non-revenue inspection trains") on two separate occasions over 3-4 miles of defective, rotting ties and track — including into sections of the U&D corridor CMRR had just agreed it would not operate on — commercially or for maintenance operations. Shouldn't elected and appointed county officials be wary of CMRR for endangering riders and defying agreements ?

That this occurred sends up monumental red flags. And it was done before the ink on the settlement agreement was even dry (Three days later), without prior notice or consultation with the County, and it coincided with a publicity campaign to pressure County officials to give CMRR a new lease and to undermine the Legislature's U&D policy. Lastly, it occurred while CMRR was in the midst of submitting a proposal responding to the tourist train RFP.

Curiously, the press did not report on these "inspection" trains (filled with passengers eating pizza and listening to fiddle music) that were posted on multiple social media sites. But, let's say, for arguments sake, these inadvisable train rides had resulted in an accident and injuries. Who would be to blame and who would be targeted if a legal claim resulted? The operator (CMRR) or the owner, Ulster County whose legal agreements forbade this...

A convoy of motorized "track" cars filled with people, observed traveling the corridor from Kingston and into Ashokan Reservoir lands after the lease (and presumably insurance) had expired, raises similar legal and liability red flags, further calling into question the trustworthiness and integrity of CMRR and its officials.

County officials and the public should be considered forewarned, and should exercise great care, as only now is the County beginning to exercise full and proper oversight of the U&D for the first time in 25 years. Protecting the taxpayers' assets and interests, and ensuring the public's safety must be paramount.

Irwin Rosenthal
Woodstock

After 30 years of exclusive monopoly on the use of the U&D rail corridor by the Catskill Mountain Railroad, its long term lease has now expired. The citizens of the County, as represented by both Legislative and Executive branches, have overwhelmingly decided that the optimal use of the corridor is for conversion into a world class rail trail, with possible train operations co-existent on segmented portions in Kingston and Shandaken.

Recently, however, a small minority group of die-hard rail fans under the moniker Save the Rails, ignoring more than three years of exhaustive research and expert analysis, has mounted a concerted protest to that decision with signs, social media blitzes, rallies, and tying up the Legislature's public comments time with ill-informed and unrealistic calls for a continuation of train operations for the entire corridor and no conversion of any part.

The public, and the County governing bodies, should not be fooled nor swayed by these belated and outsized clamors.

The data for the optimization of the use of the corridor by the citizens of the County as a key section of a world class county rail-trail system could not be more clear. Active tourism is a $345 billion industry growing at 65 percent a year, with multi-day spending of $947 per trip. The Erie Canalway Trail generates $55 million in non-local-visitor spending annually. The Great Alleghany Passage Rail Trail $24 million. The Walkway, already $24 million. The railroad-oriented Stone Consulting company, working for the County, concluded that the Ashokan section of the network will be one of the most stunning rail trails in the Northeast. $9 million in grant spending has already come into the county for trail construction alone.

In addition, the use of the U&D corridor by County and Kingston residents is projected to leap from the only 1000-2000 who rode the train annually in recent years, to more than 100,000 annual uses of the trail for health, recreation and transportation benefits.

Building the trail will produce enormously expanded benefits to the citizens of the county over the next 30 years. But in order to realize those benefits, the work on design, construction and utilization must go forward. The County must move into a new and exciting future, rather than being impeded by limited nostalgia for an era that has passed.

William Sheldon
Kingston