We were trying to get the Ape Man to write something on Solzhenitsyn in honor of his death. But apparently that is not going to work out for this week. So we had to make do with this essay from Cecil E. Bohanon. The essay is theoretically about Solzhenitsyn’s economic views, but it is a good overall overview of Solzhenitsyn’s outlook on life for those who are not already familiar with him.
Today I saw $7.99 eight-pound bags of potatoes at the store!
Holy mackerel, $1.00 a pound for plain old potatoes that weren’t that nice, to begin with. My heart just about stopped. My potatoes are doing wonderful, the plants being nearly up to my waist, but I thought I’d pick up a 10 pound bag so I could let mine get bigger. I’ve been digging around the plants a bit and am finding lots of fist sized ‘taters. I really wanted to let them get bigger, but NO WAY will I spend that much for potatoes!
I about cringe every time I go to the store, as the prices just keep going up and up and up. Cheese that used to be $3 a pound is now $4.99, flour that used to be .99 a 5 pound bag is now $2.99. Meat? Oh yeah, some was in the $10.99 range a POUND. Now where’s that deer?
It always use to be that boring and sensible people would tell you not to bother growing potatoes in a home garden because they did not give a good enough return. The advice was always to concentrate on greens and other leafy vegetables because they cost more at the store. But if potatoes start averaging a dollar a pound it would not be that hard to make a home potato plot pay for itself. The problem is coming up with a place to store the potatoes.
You will find links to these videos all over the internet. Even people who are fairly knowledgeable will find things in here that they did not know. How many people know that what you say to police officer can be used against you but not for you?
But little details aside, the central message of the videos is simple; when faced with an interrogation, keep you mouth shut.
Want an anvil? You can get one at Amazon. Check it out Grizzly G8148 100 lb. Anvil.
Not too long ago I was wondering if it was still possible to buy anvils, and presumed it was not possible. Come to find out that not only is it possible but you can get it through Amazon. High-tech [click here to read the rest]
Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument’s back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar.
In the journal report, the team led by the mathematician and filmmaker Tony Freeth of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project, in Cardiff, Wales, said the month names “are unexpectedly of Corinthian origin,” which suggested “a heritage going back to Archimedes.”
No month names on what is called the Metonic calendar were previously known, the researchers noted. Such a calendar, as well as other knowledge displayed on the mechanism, illustrated the influence of Babylonian astronomy on the Greeks. The calendar was used by Babylonians from at least the early fifth century B.C.
A full bus or trainload of people is more efficient than private cars, sometimes quite a bit more so. But transit systems never consist of nothing but full vehicles. They run most of their day with light loads. The above calculations came from figures citing the average city bus holding 9 passengers, and the average train (light or heavy) holds 22. If that seems low, remember that every packed train at rush hour tends to mean a near empty train returning down the track.
Transit vehicles also tend to stop and start a lot, which eats a lot of energy, even with regenerative braking. And most transit vehicles are just plain heavy, and not very aerodynamic. Indeed, you’ll see tables in the DoE reports that show that over the past 30 years, private cars have gotten 30% more efficient, while buses have gotten 60% less efficient and trains about 25% worse. The market and government regulations have driven efforts to make cars more efficient, while transit vehicles have actually worsened.
Lots of charts and graphs in the essay.
On the 4th of July, the extended family held a gathering at an RV campground in Pennsylvania. A pavilion was rented, food contributions lined up, and then the day arrived.
As it happened, I had been to the RV campground many years ago. Many years ago Grandma and Grandpa had a camper at the campground, and [click here to read more]
This personal narrative on the pursuit and application of college degrees reminds me of the importance of being educated (ranks right up there with the importance of being earnest). Usually stories like this end with “. . .and that’s why it’s so important to get a degree!” No wonder, because you need a college degree to figure out the logic of it.
Employers may have to reconsider the requirement of college degrees if credit continues to dry up as educational costs climb. Then again, it’s really more likely that we will print money to give to students so they can pay to go to college so that they can earn the money we printed for them.
Full disclosure: I got printed money in my back pocket.
The durian is “the fruit of trees from the genus Durio belonging to the Malvaceae, a large family which includes hibiscus, okra, cotton, mallows, and linden trees” So begins the wikipedia article. Blah, blah, blah, who cares. Right?
Well, sometimes the peculiar hides right in plain sight. Further on in the article, there was some very [Click here to read some more]
Right now the so-called summer of ’08 is on pace to produce the fewest days ever recorded in which the temperature in Anchorage managed to reach 65 degrees.
That unhappy record was set in 1970, when we only made it to the 65-degree mark, which many Alaskans consider a nice temperature, 16 days out of 365.
This year, however — with the summer more than half over — there have been only seven 65-degree days so far. And that’s with just a month of potential “balmy” days remaining and the forecast looking gloomy.