This morning the Economist was doing a reader survey to find out how we readers would react to the end of Saturday mail delivery. The Economist arrives on Saturday as often as not. They take adventage of the fact that little news occurs on weekends to keep their news fresh. Either they arrive on Monday instead of Saturday, making their news two days older, or the change their publishing schedule.
Not a couple of hours after filling in the Saturday delivery survey, do I read an AP news article indicating that US snailmail is backing off, and will keep Saturday delivery after all. So much for all the Economist's planning ahead.
According to the AP, USPS needs Congressional approval to cancel Saturday delivery and has finally wised up to the fact that they ain't gonna get that approval. Nor are they gonna get the OK to close any post offices.
Dunno what's gonna happen. USPS is losing money, Congress won't let 'em cut service. I guess postal rates are going up again. Right now mailing out the month's bills costs $10-20 in postage. Maybe it's time to start paying the bills on the web?
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Skyfall
I know it's a little bit late to comment on this movie. But I missed it in the theaters and only got to see the Netflix DVD last night. It's OK, but only OK, even for a Bond flick. Daniel Craig does make a decent Bond. He has a hard face, that looks right for a professional secret agent. The movie opens with Bond in hot pursuit of a villain. Bond jumps aboard as the train pulls out and finds himself on a flatcar loaded with Caterpillar backhoes. Bond starts up one of the backhoes and motors up to the next railcar flattening a few shiny new sedans that happened to be in the way. Pretty soon Bond is fighting it out with the villain atop the moving freight train. A pretty young sidekick has been driving furiously to keep up with the moving train. She gets ahead, grabs her rifle, jumps out of the jeep, and attempts to help Bond by shooting the villain. She never gets a clear shot, and when she fires, it's Bond who is blown off the top of the train. Then they do the credits over a background of Bond sinking to the bottom of a river.
Well, we all know you cannot open a Bond movie by killing off Bond. Some how he comes back to life and the rest of the movie is a lot of action. They manage to resurrect the Aston Martin DB6 of Goldfinger fame, but in the final showdown scene it gets blown to bits. They also manage to kill off M (Judy Dench) in the last reel. Of the two, I will miss the Aston Martin more than Judy's hard-ass M act.
I keep thinking Bond needs to carry a better handgun than that Walther PPK. If you are going to menace someone, you need a big handgun, a little lady's model just doesn't look all that serious. Several scenes of Bond moving in on the bad guys waving the tiny little Walthers around just didn't look right. American gangster Clyde Barrow liked to carry a sawed off BAR under his overcoat. Bond ought to carry something serious too. Ian Fleming started Bond off carrying a 25 cal Beretta. After a lot of fanmail from gun buffs, Fleming wrote a scene where M and the Armorer upgrade Bond to the Walthers. Some Bond flick could redo that scene and upgrade him to something British, like a .455 Webley.
Well, we all know you cannot open a Bond movie by killing off Bond. Some how he comes back to life and the rest of the movie is a lot of action. They manage to resurrect the Aston Martin DB6 of Goldfinger fame, but in the final showdown scene it gets blown to bits. They also manage to kill off M (Judy Dench) in the last reel. Of the two, I will miss the Aston Martin more than Judy's hard-ass M act.
I keep thinking Bond needs to carry a better handgun than that Walther PPK. If you are going to menace someone, you need a big handgun, a little lady's model just doesn't look all that serious. Several scenes of Bond moving in on the bad guys waving the tiny little Walthers around just didn't look right. American gangster Clyde Barrow liked to carry a sawed off BAR under his overcoat. Bond ought to carry something serious too. Ian Fleming started Bond off carrying a 25 cal Beretta. After a lot of fanmail from gun buffs, Fleming wrote a scene where M and the Armorer upgrade Bond to the Walthers. Some Bond flick could redo that scene and upgrade him to something British, like a .455 Webley.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Up Country Town Meeting
Our new democratic state rep, Rebecca Brown, held a town meeting last night at Wendles, a local sandwich joint. Attending were about 20 democrats and yours truly. Discussion ranged around the state. Legalizing gambling drew a lot of attention. The attraction is money. Maggie the Hassan promised gambling would bring in $80 million. Even the democratic controlled state house of representatives didn't believe this and the wacked Maggie's $80 million out of the budget revenue estimates.
Sue Forth, another state rep from I-don't-know-where mentioned that the teacher's union opposed the budget deal because it didn't have gambling revenue in it. Sue said she didn't understand why the teachers felt that way. A number of people in the audience piped up and said the teachers want gambling revenue to pay for their retirements.
A lot of democrats present feel that NH needs more revenue. That sounds better than "tax hike". They pretty much understand about "the pledge" (No broad based taxes). So they like gambling. Someone proposed putting a $1 a bottle tax on wine. He claimed that would be enough balance the budget.
Rebecca floated the idea of tying Northern Pass to gambling, something like this. "If you, the governor, will insist on Northern Pass burying the wires, we North country reps will support your gambling bill." Response to this idea was no better than mixed. Everybody present thinks burying a million volt transmission line is doable.
In real life it is so costly that they will find a right of way thru Vermont before they bury the wires in NH. Nobody wanted to talk about all the property taxes the Northern Pass transmission line would pay to towns. We oughta know up here. Moore Dam taxes pay for a lot of stuff in Littleton.
Sue Forth, another state rep from I-don't-know-where mentioned that the teacher's union opposed the budget deal because it didn't have gambling revenue in it. Sue said she didn't understand why the teachers felt that way. A number of people in the audience piped up and said the teachers want gambling revenue to pay for their retirements.
A lot of democrats present feel that NH needs more revenue. That sounds better than "tax hike". They pretty much understand about "the pledge" (No broad based taxes). So they like gambling. Someone proposed putting a $1 a bottle tax on wine. He claimed that would be enough balance the budget.
Rebecca floated the idea of tying Northern Pass to gambling, something like this. "If you, the governor, will insist on Northern Pass burying the wires, we North country reps will support your gambling bill." Response to this idea was no better than mixed. Everybody present thinks burying a million volt transmission line is doable.
In real life it is so costly that they will find a right of way thru Vermont before they bury the wires in NH. Nobody wanted to talk about all the property taxes the Northern Pass transmission line would pay to towns. We oughta know up here. Moore Dam taxes pay for a lot of stuff in Littleton.
Sunday, April 7, 2013
The forty knot sailboat arrives
Nifty pictures here. It's totally cool, a big racing hydrofoil up planing on foils. I think they are going to sail for the America's Cup in this crazy contraption.
This is an idea that has been around for fifty years that I know of. I read a book "The Forty Knot Sailboat" back in 1967. The idea is to cut the water drag by getting the hull up out of the water and up on plane. Doing it with hydrofoils gives a smoother ride than banging the entire hull from wavetop to wavetop. Ordinary planeing hulls will beat them selves to pieces if they are planed in all but the calmest of waters, so the smooth ride bit is important.
The 1967 book claimed that a hydrofoil sailing yacht would be faster than motor yachts, fast enough to outrun a storm. The author said that conventional sailing yachts could do little to avoid a storm, they just had to heave to, batten down the hatches and spend a day or so getting bounced around by waves and drenched by rain. Whereas a hydrofoil could sail fast enough to get out of the path of the storm and avoid getting shellacked by nasty weather.
Off shore cruising, say a run across the Atlantic, is still a sailing yacht activity. Motor yachts cannot carry enough fuel to venture offshore, unless they are as big as a small steamship.
This is an idea that has been around for fifty years that I know of. I read a book "The Forty Knot Sailboat" back in 1967. The idea is to cut the water drag by getting the hull up out of the water and up on plane. Doing it with hydrofoils gives a smoother ride than banging the entire hull from wavetop to wavetop. Ordinary planeing hulls will beat them selves to pieces if they are planed in all but the calmest of waters, so the smooth ride bit is important.
The 1967 book claimed that a hydrofoil sailing yacht would be faster than motor yachts, fast enough to outrun a storm. The author said that conventional sailing yachts could do little to avoid a storm, they just had to heave to, batten down the hatches and spend a day or so getting bounced around by waves and drenched by rain. Whereas a hydrofoil could sail fast enough to get out of the path of the storm and avoid getting shellacked by nasty weather.
Off shore cruising, say a run across the Atlantic, is still a sailing yacht activity. Motor yachts cannot carry enough fuel to venture offshore, unless they are as big as a small steamship.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Private sector creates wealth, Public sector consumes it
You hear democrats pushing for more public sector jobs "to improve the economy". They bewail the sequester and belt tightening at the state and local level that has laid off cops, teachers, and firemen, and they claim that hiring more public sector employees will reduce unemployment and make the economy grow again.
Trouble is, public sector jobs are a drag on the economy, they take money away from workers and businesses. This money does not produce any wealth. Take too much and the businesses have to raise prices, and the workers demand more money, which again raises prices.
Back in Keynes day, it didn't matter. Today, when prices go up, people buy from overseas sources (China) 'cause its cheaper. Go to WalMarts, everything on the shelves is made in China. Back in Keynes' time there were no overseas sources.
Today, countries that burden their businesses and workers with too many taxes find industry leaves their country for lower tax (also lower wage) overseas.
Can you say "Shoot yourself in the foot"?
Trouble is, public sector jobs are a drag on the economy, they take money away from workers and businesses. This money does not produce any wealth. Take too much and the businesses have to raise prices, and the workers demand more money, which again raises prices.
Back in Keynes day, it didn't matter. Today, when prices go up, people buy from overseas sources (China) 'cause its cheaper. Go to WalMarts, everything on the shelves is made in China. Back in Keynes' time there were no overseas sources.
Today, countries that burden their businesses and workers with too many taxes find industry leaves their country for lower tax (also lower wage) overseas.
Can you say "Shoot yourself in the foot"?
Friday, April 5, 2013
Provocative? who is provocative?
The White House announced that it will stop making nasty noises at the North Koreans for fear that we might provoke them. Oh really?
All official and unofficial (the MSM mostly) statements that I have heard on TV are super bland. Never a threat, always expressions of regret. We flew a few fancy warplanes into South Korea, but they turned around and flew back to bases in the US and Japan. That's not provovative, that's the bare minimum of support given to a loyal ally, an important trading partner, and a good friend facing extreme pressure. The North Koreans have denounced the 1950's armistice agreement, which is equivalent to starting up the Korean War again. The South Koreans are understandable worried (probably scared too) and they deserve a tiny bit of US support. Which is all they got. Tiny, emphasize tiny.
The North Korean's are vigorously stirring all sorts of pots, for reasons that make no sense to us. When they get over their mad, things will settle down. What we say and do doesn't matter at all. It's all up to the North Koreans.
All official and unofficial (the MSM mostly) statements that I have heard on TV are super bland. Never a threat, always expressions of regret. We flew a few fancy warplanes into South Korea, but they turned around and flew back to bases in the US and Japan. That's not provovative, that's the bare minimum of support given to a loyal ally, an important trading partner, and a good friend facing extreme pressure. The North Koreans have denounced the 1950's armistice agreement, which is equivalent to starting up the Korean War again. The South Koreans are understandable worried (probably scared too) and they deserve a tiny bit of US support. Which is all they got. Tiny, emphasize tiny.
The North Korean's are vigorously stirring all sorts of pots, for reasons that make no sense to us. When they get over their mad, things will settle down. What we say and do doesn't matter at all. It's all up to the North Koreans.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Can landowners shoot down snoopy drones?
It's a lovely day, warm and dry and sunny. Friends and family are over and the barbie is hot in the back yard. Suddenly a buzzy helicopter drone with a TV camera swoops over your backyard.
Question: Can you take your shotgun and blow the pesky drone out of the air?
Question: Can you take your shotgun and blow the pesky drone out of the air?
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