Midwest migrants

It is getting very weird here in west central Indiana. A lot of the illegals have left, heading home for want of work. The "immigrants" that are staying are refugees from the city, most of whom moved out here in better times and are now hanging on by their fingernails to small holds and farmsteads.

It gets more depopulated the further west you go - Walmarts in county seats have killed many a small town down town, and the consolidation of farms just accelerates the process.

It's really very sad. But history moves in cycles, and the population will return. It's not a question of if, but when.

I've become increasingly convinced over the years that our modern American way of life - the rampart consumerism and materialism, the globalization and constant movement, is inherently unsustainable. The shit will eventually hit the fan, and it will probably take the form of some great cataclysm or catastrophe. Biowar, peak oil, global warming, nuclear war - who knows? I doubt that I'll live to see it, but my grandchildren almost certainly will. And they'll have a small hold of their own, if they're up to it.

Two towns, two very different faces of the US heartland

(link) [BBC News]

20:21 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link


MS patent looks just like Unix command

I'm shocked, shocked I say, to discover that M$ would try to pull such a stunt.

Microsoft has won a patent that covers functionality closely resembling security features that have been at the heart of Unix for more than two decades and recently been folded into the Linux and Mac operating systems.

(link) [The Register]

19:40 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link