24 Dec 2011
Fire in the Library

Another emerging aspect to the oncoming Digital Dark Age ...

Until a few months ago, Poetry­.com held more than 14 million user-submitted poems, some dating back to the mid-1990s. The site existed to make money: it had ads and at one point sold $60 anthologies to fledgling poets who wanted to see their work in print. But to the users, Poetry.com was much more than a business. It was a scrapbook, a chest for storing precious emotional keepsakes. And they assumed, perhaps naďvely, that it would always be there.

(link) [Technology Review]

09:58 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

15 Dec 2011
Consider the Oyster Farm

Funny and informative tale of shellfish farming on Cape Cod. I can assure the author, however, that raising things with roots or legs (especially legs) can just as, er, interesting...

Oysters don't need feeding and they don't run away. So why is it so (hilariously) hard to raise them?

(link) [Gilt Taste]

08:20 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

02 Dec 2011
Conspirata

Conspiratais my latest read. And a good read it is, too. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in republican Rome and the transition to empire.

Harris tells the story of Cicero's presidency of the Roman Senate in 63 BC from the point of view of his personal secretary, Tiro.

It's seemingly pretty accurate - haven't run across any really egregious errors (yet). It's fiction, of course, and I'll allow his conjectures, especially when they're as philosophically dead-on as this:

Surely the greatest mercy granted us by Providence is our ignorance of the future. Imagine if we knew the outcome of our hopes and plans, or could see the manner in which we are doomed to die - how ruined our lives would be! Instead we live on dumbly from day to day as happily as animals. But all things must come to dust eventually. No human being, no system, no age is impervious to this law; everything beneath the stars will perish; the hardest rock will be worn away. Nothing endures but words.

21:55 /Home | 2 comments | permanent link

01 Dec 2011
The Personal Computer Is Dead

Good analysis.

The PC is dead. Rising numbers of mobile, lightweight, cloud-centric devices don't merely represent a change in form factor. Rather, we're seeing an unprecedented shift of power from end users and software developers on the one hand, to operating system vendors on the other—and even those who keep their PCs are being swept along. This is a little for the better, and much for the worse.

(link) [MIT Technology Review]

08:35 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Nov 2011
Experts Baffled by Mysterious Underground Chambers

Where does legend end and reality begin?

There are more than 700 curious tunnel networks in Bavaria, but their purpose remains a mystery. Were they built as graves for the souls of the dead, as ritual spaces or as hideaways from marauding bandits? Archeologists are now exploring the subterranean vaults to unravel their secrets.

(link) [Der Spiegel International]

15:06 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Draft horses bring fiber optics to remote locations

Because some things are just done better the old fashioned way...

The problem is as old as rural electrification. Vermont’s difficult terrain and sparse population make it unprofitable to develop rural infrastructure — a situation that left the towns of Victory and Granby dark until 1963, when Central Vermont Public Service finally ran electricity to those towns.

(link) [Vt Digger]

14:55 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

25 Nov 2011
Black Friday Violence Reported at Stores Across the Country

Black Friday, indeed.

Despite a lagging economy and high unemployment rates, shoppers made a mad dash to stores this Black Friday even inciting moments of violence among bargain hunters this holiday season.

(link) [Fox News]

11:01 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Nov 2011
Agricultural Marketing Fees: Not Just for Christmas Trees

There has been much brouhaha in the media over the so-called "Christmas tree tax". I'm glad to see it recognized as a tax, because that's exactly it is, even though it's technically a fee collected by USDA that goes to the Christmas tree growers trade association.

But where's the outrage over all of the other "agricultural marketing fees"? I've had to pay $1 per head when I sold my pasture raised beef cattle to support a beef industry association that is doing it's level best to convince the public there's no difference between pasture raised and feedlot beef! In short, I'm forced to fund advertising for my competitors! Mercifully, I'm exempt on the egg checkoff because I don't have enough hens, and I always make sure I sell lambs in lots of four or less to exempt myself there. But I'd be taxed on those, too, again to essentially support advertising my my larger competitors.

Follow the link for a more or less complete listing of current checkoff programs (and their fees). If we really want a free market, we need to end all of these.

The fees, which were supported by an industry group called the Christmas Tree Check-off Task Force, were earmarked for industry marketing efforts. USDA’s role was to make sure that all growers helped pay for those efforts, whether they supported them or not. Those growers, at least for now, have been given a reprieve. But the ill-starred Christmas tree tax was far from the only such mandatory marketing levy on agricultural products from popcorn and blueberries to mangos.

(link) [Heritage Foundation]

10:26 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Doom

An appreciation of the greatest video game ever.

In 1992, game developer id Software needed something special to follow up the hit that was Wolfenstein 3D. What could be a better denouement to my battle with Hitler than an alien world full of demons and zombies where I get to don my space marine outfit?

(link) [The Register - Hardware]

09:47 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

16 Nov 2011
A nation of suckers

Indeed.

If any reporter were caught doing the things alleged against some members of Congress, they’d be out. Canned. That afternoon. And they’d be barred from the industry for life. They’d be serving soy lattes for the rest of their days.

(link) [Marketwatch]

19:20 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

12 Nov 2011
Favorable market for lamb has farmers flocking to sheep

There certainly seems to be a buzz building around sheep here. One of these days I'll get around to detailing some of what we've been working on for the past few years in our flocks.

At the Johnson County farm where he began raising sheep as a 4-Her in 1945, Stan Poe is participating in a revival of the lamb.

(link) [Indianapolis Star]

23:58 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

11 Nov 2011
Wisconsin Judge: No Right to Decide What to Eat Without Permission from State

There's a lot of folks getting awfully bent out of shape over this (and other rulings involving raw milk). And rightly so, I might add. But I have to wonder - where were these folks when the state declared that farmers may no longer grow hemp and consume it? Or poppies? Why are cows so special?

If you're going to oppose state intervention in food production, a little consistency might go a long way.

Demonstrating his ignorance of core values enshrined in common law and what Judge Cooley defined as the “right to be left alone” from overly pernicious government interference, a Circuit Court judge in Wisconsin has ruled that people who consume raw milk have no right to do so.

(link) [Fact Over Fiction]

20:55 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

09 Nov 2011
Cutting back on salt: Does it help?

I've blogged a lot about this topic in the past, but given my recent cardiac experience it's taken on a whole new urgency of late. This aggregation seems to confirm what I'd come to conclude, but with a new twist: blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels rose on a restricted salt diet!

Maybe that'll get somebody's attention!

Anyone who’s tried to reduce the amount of sodium in their diet knows how hard it can be to lower levels down to the government’s recommended limit of 1,500 milligrams a day for whites 51 and older, all African Americans and others with certain chronic health conditions such as hypertension and chronic kidney disease.

(link) [Los Angles Times]

23:14 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Hinduism spreads in Ghana, reaches Togo

Here's a lesson for us heathens:

"We have not achieved this through the winning of souls as other religions do, but have attracted people into the practice of Hinduism simply by the lives we lead," he [Kwesi Anamoah, national president of the African Hindu Temple] said, adding: "Our lives shine in the community to attract people."

From just two dozen people in the mid 1970s to 3,000 families now, Hinduism is spreading in Ghana and has also made its way into neighbouring Togo.

(link) [Times of India]

23:04 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Oct 2011
A Month to Remember

I don't post a lot of personal stuff, but, well this has been incredible. In the sense of "unbelievable". So personal or not, here goes...

The last time I posted was Wednesday, September 28th. Later that evening we received word that Lorraine's mom had been diagnosed with what was described as almost certainly a terminal bladder cancer. In retrospect, this marked the start of The Incredible 24 Hours.

I suppose a case could be made for this time period being longer than a mere day. Or maybe I should refer to it as the Most Incredible 24 Hours in the Most Remarkable Month. A couple of weeks before that my family doctor had scheduled me for a cardiac stress test, the treadmill variety, and a series of images of the heart. I'd been having some chest pains and my RN wife insisted I get it checked out. I picked up a prescription for nitro on the way home ...

The stress test happened the morning of the 29th - at 6:30 am, no coffee, no cigarettes. Bad, grouchy Dave was out and about. And he flunked the stress test. Rather miserably, in fact. This meant a consult with a cardiologist and a heart catheterization. With or without stents - he wouldn't speculate until he got in there and took a look.

On the way home from the appointment, we noted the truck as sounding funny. We'd just had it winterized and outfitted with new brakes a couple of weeks before, so it should've been fine. But since I was heading to work late (it was about 11 am by the time this happened) and Lorraine wanted to go down and see her mom, we decided to just drop the truck off at our mechanic's in Thorntown, and drive the car together. Lorraine would come back and pick up up at quitting time.

Lorraine dropped me off about 1, and I had no sooner got sat down and brought up my terminal than the receptionist called my desk, telling me that my wife couldn't get out of the parking lot!

Sure enough, Lorraine was stuck. The car was making a hideous squealing, and when I managed to get it off the road and back in to the parking lot, the main belt just snapped. So, after a moment or two of sheer panic, we called a wrecker from a nearby garage and had the car towed in and looked at. A couple of hours elapsed while we waited - it was finally determined that the air conditioning compressor had locked up, causing the belt to snap. This meant a new compressor, not a cheap repair, nor a particularly easy one. We couldn't get the car until Monday!

Frantic calls to Thorntown ensued, trying to get the status of the truck repair. It was not good. The noise was the bearing in the air conditioner compressor - it was locking up and would break the belt rapidly if not replaced!

What do you suppose the odds of the same component failing in the same way at the same time in two vehicles owned by the same people? I bought a lottery ticket that day - still didn't win, but figured that with probabilities like that rolling my way it couldn't hurt to try!

We managed to get a ride home with Lorraine's brother - and started in Friday morning on a frantic search for a used compressor for the truck that we could have the mechanic slap into place and get going. Chris H of Ravenswood had the day off work, and he drove us over about 1 to Boxley to fetch the part from a junkyard. Brought it back, dropped it off for the mechanic and we had a running vehicle by Saturday.

Until it failed to start in the feed store parking lot. Time to replace that five year old battery. Coincidence?

That was pretty much the end of the Incredible 24 Hours, which actually ran a bit more like 36. But who's counting? Little did I know it was but the start ...

We got the car back Monday, and Lorraine's mom had surgery that Friday (the 7th). It was bad, but not as bad as they initially thought. So there were some treatment options beyond palliative care, and a consultation with the oncologist was scheduled for October 19th. My consultation with the cardiologist was scheduled for October 13 - and we hosted Winter Nights for Ravenswood on October 15th.

My consultation with the cardiologist didn't got so well at all. I definitely had all the signs of some blocked blood vessels on the heart itself, and was scheduled to have the heart cath and stent placement on the 20th. He mentioned in passing that if the arteries were so blocked that they couldn't be opened with stents or angioplasty, I'd probably have to have bypass surgery. But that could always be scheduled for a later day...

I took Wednesday the 19th off work - I didn't feel particularly bad, but was very nervous about the procedure the next morning, especially the 6:30 am start time with no coffee or cigarettes. Lorraine got back from her mom's appointment about 6 - I had fixed chicken livers and rice, joking about my "last meal".

Showed up at the local hospital the next morning on time and was wheeled back about 7. Next thing I remember I was coming to in a room, apparently in intensive care, with Lorraine and the cardiologist at my bedside, talking about an immediate transfer to the Heart Center in Indianapolis for emergency bypass surgery! The left main coronary artery on the heart was like 95% blocked, and the cardiologist was terrified that he might have knocked a chuck of the plaque loose during the abortive catheterization. Apparently it's not that uncommon a side effect in severe cases.

Needless to say, I was not pleased at all - WTF? My symptoms hadn't been at all that severe, and if things were as gummed up as claimed, it struck me that it was a miracle that I was alive at all! Not having had any caffeine or nicotine, and still being under the influence of the anesthetic made me what Lorraine tells me the doctors and nurses refer to as a "medically non-compliant" patient. Cranky doesn't do it justice - there was no way I was going to take an ambulance ride to the heart center. Lorraine was going to drive me, or I would drive myself, or the transfer just wouldn't happen. End of story. I wanted a Starbucks, I wanted a cigarette, and most importantly, I wanted some time ALONE with my medical professional wife (she's an RN - don't know if I ever mentioned that or not...) to try and sort out what was happening.

This was finally agreed to, and Lorraine drove me to the heart hospital in Indy on the afternoon of the 20th, stopping by Starbucks on the way. I finally understood that I was going to have to have a major bypass surgery, and was rather scared witless.

The surgery took place Friday the 21st starting about noon. They placed a total of 5 grafts (bypasses) using material from my leg veins and chest wall artery. I was out of the operating room by about 5. My heart had been stopped and restarted, with the heart-lung machine filling in during surgery. I remember very little until late Saturday, but I know Lorraine stayed with me practically around the clock, breaking only to feed the critters (or arrange for our friend and neighbor Tim to feed). By Sunday I was hurting pretty good. They let me come home yesterday, the 26th. I'll be on short term disability for at least six to eight weeks - it'll be a minimum of six weeks before I can drive. Don't think I'll be tossing hay this year - or loading fifty pound sacks of feed.

In fact, I have very little idea what will happen to the farm, our plans and our future. Lorraine's back started acting up this year, and this just exacerbates a situation already well in the making. On the other hand, we just got fully tooled up for hay production, and the breeding program has been successful beyond our wildest dreams. But the times, they are a changin', and I'll keep posting here. Don't expect to see too much politics, though. Political stuff just doesn't seem nearly as relevant as it did a mere month ago...

17:46 /Home | 8 comments | permanent link

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