I hate architecture that deliberately sets out to defy gravity. For one thing, gravity has a tendency to win.
But that is really just a side issue. After all, gravity will eventually pull any building to the ground. But I still don’t derive any pleasure from seeing buildings challenge their ultimate fate. They just seem Click Here to continue reading.
I came across a description of Previous Concrete here. Apparently it is a kind of concrete that is designed to let water pass through. There is picture on the site of someone pouring a glass of water right through a chunk of this concrete. This extreme permeably is necessary as the primary proposes of this Click Here to continue reading.
Crude oil climbed above $82 a barrel to a record in New York after the Federal Reserve reduced U.S. interest rates more than economists expected.
A suspicious North Korean freighter that re-flagged itself as South Korean before off-loading an unknown cargo at the Syrian port of Tartous is at the centre of efforts today to investigate Israel’s recent air strike on Syria.
An Israeli on-line data analyst, Ronen Solomon, found an internet trace for the 1,700-tonne cargo ship, Al Hamed, which showed the vessel started to off-load what Syrian officials categorised as “cement” on Sept 3.
This was three days before Israeli jets attacked a site in the north eastern desert of Syria, not far from its border with Iraq.
North Korea is famous for its exports of concrete.
In other news, I think Israel has taken a step up with their new defenses minister Ehud Barak. He made some calls when he was a prime minister that might seem questionable to conservative types. But his decisions as defense minister are at least understandable. That is more then you can say for his predecessor.
As an example, read this article in The Times….
Early in the summer Ehud Barak, the defence minister, had given the order to double Israeli forces on its Golan Heights border with Syria in anticipation of possible retaliation by Damascus in the event of air strikes.
Sergei Kirpichenko, the Russian ambassador to Syria, warned President Bashar al-Assad last month that Israel was planning an attack, but suggested the target was the Golan Heights.
Israeli military intelligence sources claim Syrian special forces moved towards the Israeli outpost of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. Tension rose, but nobody knew why.
At this point, Barak feared events could spiral out of control. The decision was taken to reduce the number of Israeli troops on the Golan Heights and tell Damascus the tension was over. Syria relaxed its guard shortly before the Israeli Defense Forces struck.
That is an exercise in deception that you would expect from a guy who dressed as a woman in order to assassinate people in downtown Beirut while it was controlled by PLO.
You could argue he should have kept the troops on the border just in case. But I can understand not wanting to do anything to jeopardize the air strike if it was really a nuclear target. Israel can handled Syrian conventional forces in almost any conceivable situation. But if you flub an attack on a weapon of mass destruction, you might not get a second chance.
In that context, making it look like Israel was backing down was probably the right decision. You don’t expect an enemy who is withdrawing troops from your border to attack you.
H/T The Belmont Club which also has satellite photos of possible targets. Apparently, Syria’s nuclear research agency is big on doing agricultural research
Almost everytime I read a modern critique of art or someone explaining a modern work of art, I think of this poem.
In this rant, Andrew Cusack argues that architects hate us and he provides evidence to back up his claim. Myself, I am not sure if they hate us or if they are so evil they just can’t tell the difference between good and bad.
It is taken for granted by most people that the rule of law requires a state. Spencer Heath MacCallum challenges that assumption in an essay entitled “The Rule of Law without the State.”
Mr. MacCallum’s proof case is none other then Somalia. This might be a little hard for some people to swallow, but the fact is that Somalia has done better by all relevant statistics since its central government was abolished. It has even improved relative to other African countries.
Now correlation does not prove causation, so Macallum’s statistics don’t prove anything. But reading this essay reminded me of Samuel’s lecture to Israelites when they asked for a king. Especially since customary law the world over tends to have a lot of similarities with the Old Testament law.
Sometimes the world is just so sick that even I can’t laugh at it. Though perhaps I am overly sensitive due to the fact that food is near and dear to my heart.
What ever the reason, I can find no humor in the fact that this country subsidizes the burning of food for fuel while at the same time slapping such heavy environmental regulations on fuel that farmers are facing shortages. This from Fox News…
NEW YORK — Fuel shortages in the U.S. Midwest are raising concerns corn farmers may have trouble harvesting their bumper crop this autumn.
Farmers planted the largest corn crop since 1944 last spring after prices hit a 10-year high of $4.37 a bushel in early 2007. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated a record crop of more than 13 billion bushels.
But farmers said supplies of the ultra low sulfur diesel needed for harvesting equipment are running low, particularly in the corn-growing regions of Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa.
In Iowa, fuel shortages are anticipated as retailers report having only about 80 percent of their normal supply, said John Scott, a corn and soy farmer in west central Iowa.
“Worse case scenario is our crop stands in the field until we have fuel to harvest it,” said Scott, who has stored about one week’s supply of fuel in anticipation of shortages, but not enough to tide him over for the six-week harvest season.
Curt Watson, the President of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, said the fuel terminal that usually supplies his area is dry. His supplier has to drive to another area, where long lines with a wait of four hours are not uncommon.
So according to this article, the checks that America Home Mortgage Investment Corp sends out to pay the property taxes are bouncing. That means that the people in those houses need to pay their bill themselves if they don’t want to lose their houses. So what has that to do with shooting government officials? Well read this….
Baltimore City received bad checks for 53 properties – a total of about $63,500. Baltimore County said American Home Mortgage checks bounced for 21 properties, totaling $41,000. Taxes are due at the end of the month.
Finance officials in the rest of the region – Anne Arundel, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties – reported no similar problems.
“This is just another chapter in what is a very difficult time for the mortgage industry,” said Donald I. Mohler III, a spokesman for Baltimore County, which no longer accepts checks from American Home Mortgage.
“It’s an unfortunate situation and we certainly hope these individuals will be able to work out some kind of agreement with their mortgage company,” Mohler said.
Anthony McCarthy, a spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon, said the city does not plan to notify the affected homeowners. They will get a notice in November along with all other delinquent taxpayers if the problem isn’t resolved by then.
Baltimore County said it has sent bills directly to the property owners to alert them.
Now Baltimore County is doing things right. I don’t feel any particular need to see them shot. But what excuse is there for the city of Baltimore? If the City alerted people like the county did, then people could avoid penalties.
I always thought that the way you should treat your rechargeable batteries should depend on the type of battery that you are using. I thought that Nickel-Metal Hydride and Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable batteries should be completely drained down before reusing. On the other hand, Lithium Ion should never be drained all the way because that Click Here to continue reading.