Seedlings
This morning I was looking through my hotmail drafts. Holy crap! I have a lot of half-assed thoughts e-scribbled having never reached a conclusion worthy of posting in this blog. It is the nature of my writing. The majority of my inane thoughts never see the light of day, which is lucky for you.
Stuff pops into my head. I scribble the freshly seeded idea in a draft, save it, and think about it .... or not. Sometimes I go back to water the inspiration, help it grow. Other times the seedling never spouts. Even the nutured can die in the field.
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I wanted to mention a documentary I watched last week, 'Manufactured Landscapes'. The film chronicles the travels and photography of Edward Burtynsky. I never heard of him until I saw this fantastic, but sometimes dreary, documentary on what mankind has done to the landscape of mother earth. Google his name for samples of his industrial photography. China is currently sticking it to the planet very hard. I recommend the film.
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As a struggling homeowner I found this cut & paste NYT factoid disturbing.
Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.
Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment. “The rich are different: they are more ruthless,” said Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist.
The rich are ruthless? Say it ain't so. I'm still waiting for my trickle down.
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With the shuttle program coming to an end and Obama slashing the moon project, engineers at NASA have time on their hands. So much time, they took on the task of testing the aerodynamics of the jabulani soccer ball World Cup players are bitching about.
Once the ball reaches 44 mph the lightweight design creates a knuckle affect causing it to swerve, dip and dive. The high altitude of some cup venues compounds the affect. There you have it, Ronaldo and Messi don't suck after all. It's the damn ball. I'm glad to see our tax dollars hard at work. I think we need to find something new for the nerds at NASA to work on.
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And finally.........
You know how much I love the blonde government of Jan Brewer. Over the 4th of July holiday another genius stroke of her pen was discussed in the local media. She passed a bill permitting anyone over the age of 15 to possess and use class B fireworks. I was 16 once. I had fireworks. I know this is a bad combination.
Have you heard anything about the wildfires we have in the Arizona high country? The state spends tens of millions annually fighting massive forest fires here. Hundreds of thousands of acres are scorched every summer. The Feds dump millions into our fire fighting apparatus. We have this desert-being-dry-thing going on down here. And our governor is handing firecrackers to teenagers.
WTF?
Now I can till the north forty of my drafts folder.
Stuff pops into my head. I scribble the freshly seeded idea in a draft, save it, and think about it .... or not. Sometimes I go back to water the inspiration, help it grow. Other times the seedling never spouts. Even the nutured can die in the field.
------------------------------------------
I wanted to mention a documentary I watched last week, 'Manufactured Landscapes'. The film chronicles the travels and photography of Edward Burtynsky. I never heard of him until I saw this fantastic, but sometimes dreary, documentary on what mankind has done to the landscape of mother earth. Google his name for samples of his industrial photography. China is currently sticking it to the planet very hard. I recommend the film.
-------------------------------------------
As a struggling homeowner I found this cut & paste NYT factoid disturbing.
Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.
Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment. “The rich are different: they are more ruthless,” said Sam Khater, CoreLogic’s senior economist.
The rich are ruthless? Say it ain't so. I'm still waiting for my trickle down.
----------------------------------------
With the shuttle program coming to an end and Obama slashing the moon project, engineers at NASA have time on their hands. So much time, they took on the task of testing the aerodynamics of the jabulani soccer ball World Cup players are bitching about.
Once the ball reaches 44 mph the lightweight design creates a knuckle affect causing it to swerve, dip and dive. The high altitude of some cup venues compounds the affect. There you have it, Ronaldo and Messi don't suck after all. It's the damn ball. I'm glad to see our tax dollars hard at work. I think we need to find something new for the nerds at NASA to work on.
----------------------------------
And finally.........
You know how much I love the blonde government of Jan Brewer. Over the 4th of July holiday another genius stroke of her pen was discussed in the local media. She passed a bill permitting anyone over the age of 15 to possess and use class B fireworks. I was 16 once. I had fireworks. I know this is a bad combination.
Have you heard anything about the wildfires we have in the Arizona high country? The state spends tens of millions annually fighting massive forest fires here. Hundreds of thousands of acres are scorched every summer. The Feds dump millions into our fire fighting apparatus. We have this desert-being-dry-thing going on down here. And our governor is handing firecrackers to teenagers.
WTF?
Now I can till the north forty of my drafts folder.