September 2010

Op-Ed Columnist – Structure of Excuses – NYTimes.com

30 September 2010

I’ve been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935 analysis, because the work force is “unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may offer.” [...]

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First World War Ends | Cato @ Liberty

29 September 2010

On September 26, 2010 — 92 years after the WWI officially ended — Germany made her last payment of $94 million in reparations “to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles.”
via First World War Ends | Cato @ Liberty.
It didn’t hurt that we provided the Marshall [...]

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Water transfers already have eaten into ag land – The Pueblo Chieftain: Local

29 September 2010

Transfers from 1950 to the present could take water off one-third of historically irrigated land in the Arkansas River basin — nearly 150,000 of 450,000 acres, according to information compiled by The Pueblo Chieftain.
via Water transfers already have eaten into ag land – The Pueblo Chieftain: Local.
Water is a very hot topic in Colorado. I [...]

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Critic’s Notebook – In Arabian Desert, a Sustainable City Rises – NYTimes.com

28 September 2010

But his design also reflects the gated-community mentality that has been spreading like a cancer around the globe for decades. Its utopian purity, and its isolation from the life of the real city next door, are grounded in the belief — accepted by most people today, it seems — that the only way to create [...]

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A Self-Reliant Home

27 September 2010

One of my major goals is to have a self-reliant home.
For many people their home is a box to hold their stuff while they work and sleep. That isn’t good enough for me anymore. I want something better. Most homes just don’t support a reasonable lifestyle. They depend on lots of energy input to run [...]

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Weekend Project: Getting Ready for Winter Checklist

24 September 2010

The Fall Equinox has arrived and it is time to get ready for winter.
Since Daylight Savings Time was moved it isn’t all that useful any more for changing smoke alarm batteries and the like, so I am now using the Spring/Fall Equinox instead. This way when those Public Service Announcements start running you can be [...]

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Things Around the Stove

23 September 2010

The stove needs some things around it, like storage for pots & pans and cooking utensils like spatulas and big spoons. While you can certainly store pans in the broiler drawer and pots in the oven, I prefer drawers under or next to the stove.
A regular cabinet works but there is always some pot that [...]

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Where to Put the Laundry Room

22 September 2010

The next thing about the laundry room is where do you put it?
Traditionally, the laundry has been in the basement. Primarily because that was the only place that had the room and access to the hookups. Not much of a reason but there you go.
In the past few decades its moved upstairs because consumers finally [...]

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Making the Laundry Room Useful

21 September 2010

Have you ever had a laundry room that wasn’t a total pain to use?
Is it just me or does it seem like builders and architects have never done a load of laundry in their lives?
I am the first to say that a washing machine and dryer are some of the best inventions ever. Actually, I [...]

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Essex project builds backyard passive freezer | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington, Vermont

20 September 2010

Tailer and his team of 10 interns are building a passive freezer that will keep food frozen year round using no purchased energy. It’s constructed out of mostly local, recycled or reused products
via Essex project builds backyard passive freezer | The Burlington Free Press | Burlington, Vermont.
This is pretty cool. The idea seems like a [...]

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