While you may think that reading this blog gives you all the 18th century British grenadier goodness you can stand, you really need your very own grenadier. Fortunately, the people over at Paper Replika have posted plans that let you create your very own. Looks really cool.
My latest time sink has been Turntable.fm. I am absolutely hooked. My most frequent haunt is a ‘room’ which specializes in rock and heavy metal music. One of my fellow metalheads recommended the movie Anvil! The Story of Anvil and I heartily pass along that recommendation. Even if you aren’t a fan of heavy metal music (and Anvil isn’t my particular cup of tea) you should check this out. It’s all about friends, family and following your dreams. While it would have been quite easy to make a mocking, real-life Spinal Tap, the movie does a great job of showing the human faces of the band and their families. Quite possibly the best documentary I’ve seen in a very long time. Really, don’t miss this.
I’m a bit skeptical of the ‘Oh no! China will bury us!’ meme but there are real consequences at the prospect of tens (hundreds?) of millions of people moving from poverty into the middle class. Some of those we can guess pretty easily like the increase in demand for consumer goods and energy which will make resources scarce and likely accelerate climate change. Others you might not readily think of. Take, for example, the boom in hunting mammoth tusks in Siberia to feed the ever increasing demand for ivory in China.
Nearly 90 percent of all mammoth tusks hauled out of Siberia—estimated at more than 60 tons a year, though the actual figure may be higher—end up in China, where legions of the newly rich are entranced by ivory. The spike in demand has worried some scientists, who lament the loss of valuable data; like the trunk of a tree, a tusk contains clues about diet, climate, and the environment. Even Yakutiyans wonder how quickly this nonrenewable resource will be depleted. Millions of mammoth tusks, perhaps more, are still locked in Siberia’s permafrost, but already they’re becoming harder to find.
Probably not a huge deal in the big picture but you never know what this might lead to.
The Swedes continue to astound the world. Recent low water levels have revealed the wrecks of two 17th century Danish warships. Pretty amazing when you consider it’s a capital city and the waterways are heavily developed and used.
So, the economy is changing fast…manufacturing jobs are going overseas, technology is making old jobs obsolete, you know the deal. So, what happens to people lacking education, opportunity for reeducation or other reasons they can’t keep up? Well, the U.S. government has (unintentionally) created a program to warehouse all these people in poverty.
It’s called disability insurance. And in addition to poverty wages of about $1,000 a month you also get health insurance. Since that’s a better deal than most low wage and/or part time jobs out there it basically incentivizes people to stay on the program until they are eligible for social security. And since ‘disability’ is a subjective evaluation rather than a medical diagnosis, this is a problem that won’t get better on its own.
There’s a whole lot more you should know about our disability system may not do what it was intended to. Check out this brilliant explainer from NPR.
The Washington Post apparently has an annual peep contest every year. Check out one of this year’s finalist…Zero Peep Thirty.
