Teenager Proves Point

Cops bust 'root beer kegger' Teenagers were suspended from sports for pictures of them drinking from red cups, so one teenager staged a keg party at his home, a keg of root beer. They had fun until the police raided the party. Even once the police confirmed it was root beer they continued to test and harass the kids. Here is the quote of the officer from the story; “It was a tremendous waste of time and manpower, but we still had a job to do, and our officers did it," Joling said. "If one kid had come there, even hadn't drank there, but had come there and had been drinking and had left and crashed and burned, then what would the sentiment be? Why didn't the police check everybody out?" School officials and police officers are only human and it is good that the kids protested peacefully. What is funny is that the teenagers and officers both had the same problem. The teenagers thought the red cup pictures were unfair. True they do not represent proof, but the real question is whether the teenagers were drinking in the pictures, which it appears they were. The police quickly realized it was root bear, but continued to treat it otherwise. Both failed to go past rules and make a judgment call. Rules will only take you so far. Otherwise we would only need the Old Testament.

Early 1860 recording found

Before Edison invented sound recording in 1877 a French typesetter recorded his daughter singing in 1860. It is a good example of the difference in marketing and inventing. It is also of interest that a museum had the recording in its archives. The recording was done on a carbon covered piece of paper. A paper record not unlike modern photocopies. 'Magical' song from 1860 knocks Edison off the chart

Ultimate Metal Detector

Metal detectors are like exercise equipment and boats. They sound great at the time but rarely get used. While I have bought neither, I have bought a metal detector, the top of the line at the time. I found some interesting trash including a skeleton key and the tip of a plow. It ultimately ended up in the closet. I came across this detector and found the web site very appealing. http://www.minelab.com/consumer/page.php?section=268#1 Unfortunately these are the same claims I heard fifteen years ago and though I found a nugget by panning I never found one with a detector. It is difficult to describe something technical and keep it interesting and easy to read so I include this link as a good example of a sales pitch.

Massive Ice Shelf Collapse

I find the symmetry amazing. Notice how clean the lines are and how square the blocks. Like how crystals form. National Geographic satellite and a close up from a Sydney newspaper.

Who Pays for Commercial Free

Sony Retracts Bloatware Removal Fee in response to complaints by customers, though only for business customers who buy more than one computer. Sony was charging $49.99 to remove the trial software. This reveals two important things. If you as a customer raise a fuss you will sometimes get your way. Customers do not like advertising, but do not want to pay for the difference.

Dust Bowl

In 1933 a cool and wet summer led to a record harvest of corn. In November of 1933 a series of bad dust storms hit. These winds caused massive dust storms that continued until 1940. The result was a mass migration of people and a disruption in agriculture. What was unusual about 1933 is that the wet and cool weather formed over the Midwest and not the South.

In 2007 we have seen the same weather conditions and another record corn harvest. We have seen a number of wind storms this winter. A couple of trees have fallen in my neighborhood and my backyard is littered with small limbs. It is not unusual to have a front pass through and bring some wind at this time of year. But this year they have been more frequent. The biggest wind storm had only a small amount of dust comparable to the smog on hot summer days. Improvements in crop rotation and ground cover have prevented the wind storm from becoming dust storms.

So it will be interesting to see how 2008 agriculture plays out in the Midwest. The dust bowl has been blamed on farming practices. It appears that it was not an act of God, but an act of man.

Gold

The price of gold stocks plummeted today. One stock I own is down over twenty percent this week. The reason is a smaller than expected interest rate cut by the Fed and rhetoric that the government is concerned with inflation. This caused the largest dollar drop in the price of gold ever. I was reading some of the Wall Street Journals that had piled up. An article from last week said people were selling jewelry since gold had reached $940 an ounce. Now that gold has plunged back to $942 it is cheap. Sure $1030 was really high. But how is the record high price a few days ago now low? What happened to low being is under $400. I guess the same as ever seeing gasoline under $1 a gallon.