I am working on moving my original blog to a new home. A lot of tweaking and redoing things I forgot doing two years ago...I'll probably be posting and polising the chrome over there for a few days (or weeks)...If you want to check up on me try me at…
Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 08 Aug 2008 The Locavore's Dilemma Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Ohio Sues Over Trouble With Voting Machines - washingtonpost.com During the May primary, Brunner said officials in Butler County, north of Cincinnati, realized that 150 votes were dropped when they were being transferred from memory cards. When Brunner looked into it, she found that…
I ran across this looking for a musician referenced on Americana Roots Radio yesterday. I tried it in the sidebar but it didn't work too well...So I'll post it here. There are some really good artists in the play list, so have a listen... Texas Back Porch Station 5428 at…
Could McCain possibly have received a better response to his "Celebrity" ad than this? See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.comSee more funny videos at Funny or Die For the first time in my life I have to say...You go girl...
Up early to check on the status of Edouard...Looks like a miss for my house...Heading inland already on the Louisiana border. Should miss the majority of the Houston area, rain and moderate winds only. Sherry has headed for work already...Television on, radar on the monitor... Happy Birthday Wendell Berry It's…
All eyes in this area are watching the developements in the Gulf. It looks like we will be feeling the effects of the approaching storm tomorrow in the early pre-dawn hours. Hopefully, the storm will live down to the predictions and not become the storm it could be. All in…
The Pleasurable Choice Is the Ethical Choice I like to say that I'm not an an optimist, but I am a person of hope. That is to say, I cultivate the virtue of hope in myself. Hope takes account of the enormity and darkness of challenges and problems, and yet…
This project began as so many good things do, over a cup of coffee. So begins the preface to Rebooting America, Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age. Dana Boyd blogged about the availability of the download this morning and I pulled the pdf down before leaving the…
First things first --- Happy Birthday Sherry. I know you never read these muses...but hell, I'll still say it here. The best present I ever got... Now to the subject of this muse...Heat. It's hot here, it's hot across the south, it's hot on the Blue Ridges of North Carolina…
The Podcast I listened to yesterday that really caught my interest was this one... Tiny Texas Cafe Fills Up After Barbecue Award : NPR All Things Considered, July 18, 2008 · Barbecue is religion in Texas. Every five years, Texas Monthly goes on a quest for the Holy Grail —…
The "Party" on Saturday had all of the appearances of being a success. By the time the house was empty and the ticky-tacky leftovers were put away I could once again hit the lazy-boy and reflect on the past couple of weeks of labor and feel good that it was…
...addicting...go play. Thanks Kate...
Around these parts most of our ripened fruit happened a month or better ago. The only thing still to come are the pecans in the fall. Even so the following resonates... The Suburban Life - Thinking Ahead - Editorial - NYTimes.com It’s a good year for blueberries. Decades ago, a…
The drive home yesterday was blustery but dry with lots of high clouds and rain showers off in the distance. Hurricane Dolly's approach to the Texas coast was being felt first far north of the expected landfall. The first bands of showers croosed Galveston Island early yesterday morning. The drive…
I finally bit the bullet and upgraded this site to the new WordPress 2.6...I thought I was locked out of my own site...It took two days to figure out why I could not log in...user name and password were right...log in again was the prompt...over and over again...then on a…
Pardon the parsity of the recent posts. I find myself in that strange world of being in between. After thirty-five years at the same company (yes, most of my co-workers weren't even born when I started), I find my skills and knowledge not as welcome as they were. Management changes…
Magnum, P.C.: PI rule for computer techs doesn't benefit public | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Last year the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring anyone who retrieves data from a computer, analyzes it and makes a report to a customer to have a private investigator's license. The law is a…
Overnight Thompson's price per kilowatt-hour went from 11.8 cents with the now-defunct retailer National Power to 31.7 cents with CPL Retail Energy. During the 19 days last month he had to wait before he was switched to a lower priced plan, he ran up a $385 bill. Top wholesale power…
Ever since Sept. 11, I have been of a contrarian. I never felt that the date had changed anything other than our own misguided perception of our own safety. A perception I did not share then. Now I read that my views are shared by, at least some of, those…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Yesterday there was an op-ed in the Times that said a lot of what I have been feeling here lately...and said it well...Go read the whole thing... Thomas L. Friedman - Anxious in America - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com “America and its political leaders, after…
The Rural Life - Editorial - Summer’s Night - Editorial - NYTimes.com The last couple of nights I’ve stood at the edge of the pasture watching the fireflies. They rise from the grass, flickering higher and higher until one of them turns into the blinking lights of a jet flying…
Looking out the french doors in the kitchen this morning as I read my email and check the news I am amazed at the difference a couple of weeks of hit and miss rain can make. Everything in view is green again. The grass is growing like it should have…
Enjoy the day...But remember the reason we celebrate. George F. Will - Independence Days - washingtonpost.com Certain politically charged rhetorical tropes were then society's common property. Writing shortly before his death, Jefferson affirmed his belief that "the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor…
Wouldn't it make a great birthday present to the country if we could get serious about Energy Independence? Yale Environment 360: As Energy Prices Rise, the Pressure to Drill Builds Perhaps we should be amazed that America’s largest protected area — the 19.2 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) —…
TED | Talks | Ron Eglash: African fractals, in buildings and braids (video) "I am a mathematician, and I would like to stand on your roof." That is how Ron Eglash greeted many African families he met while researching the fractal patterns he’d noticed in villages across the continent.
I have never felt that the Corporate pushers of GMOs were looking out for anything other than their own profits. That has led me to look on their actions in an unfavorable light. While this has always been a personal "feeling", I find my concerns expressed very well by this…
I have subscribed to Michael Pollan's website to be sent updates to what's happening in his world. I received a notice that led me to a new environmental website...If you haven't seen it before, go check it out. Yale Environment 360: Michael Pollan on What's Wrong with EnvironmentalismThere are basically…
One of the email missives I look forward to comes in on it's own schedule each month. It is from Andy Griffin of Mariquita Farm called "The Ladybug Letter". Andy tells tales of his life in agriculture on the west coast...Funny stories, ironic stories...Stories of life...Great stories... The Ladybug Letter…
David Broder has a column today that touches on a subject that has bothered me for a good while... After watching the effects of the Delay led gerrymander in Texas a few years ago I have felt that it is time for us to do something to end the safe…
