Making maple syrup in a hotter world
It's hard to take big-picture global temperature increases and bring them down to a personal level—partly because of that confusion between weather and climate, and partly because scientists simply have a better understanding what is very likely to happen in an averaged-out global system, than they have of how changes in that global system are likely to affect your backyard.
I like the way Climate Wisconsin is trying to bridge that gap. First, they use interactive visuals to show the local symptoms of climate change, like rising average temperatures and fewer days of ice cover of Wisconsin lakes. Then, they connect those symptoms to Wisconsin life. If these trends continue, what impact will they have on things like fishing, forestry, farming and, yes, the making of maple syrup.
It's a hard line to walk. The family featured in this video has recently experienced some of the worst years for making maple syrup in four generations. But, because weather isn't climate, next year could be better for them, even as the climate, overall, continues to warm. At the same time, though, climate change is likely to have long-term impacts on where and how well sugar maples can grow—and when, and for how long, their sap runs in spring.
I think this video and the related essay do a better-than-average job of making that distinction. This family won't be out of business next year. But, over time, climate change is very likely to make this work harder for them. The harder it gets, Wisconsin traditions associated with maple syrup making will become less common—and the 5-million-dollar syrup industry will bring less money to the state.
Also, I just finished re-reading Little House in the Big Woods, and it's fun to see how the process of maple syrup production has, and hasn't, changed since Grandpa Ingalls threw a sugaring-off party at his Wisconsin cabin in the late 1860s. Check out the taps they hammer into the maples. They look just like the Little House illustrations, but instead of draining into wooden buckets, the sap now flows into plastic bags.
Thanks to agroman for Submitterating!
As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.
It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."
For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:
I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.
So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).
Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."
Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.
I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.
But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.
The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?
Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."
Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?
robert shumake
Fox <b>News</b> Fails | worldwide hippies
The people over at Fox News have caused many laughs, cries and broken television screens in 2010 and usually in that order. The network has created so many blunders and mistakes that its mere existence as a news agency is in of itself ...
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Dawn Comes Twice in European Solar Eclipse - AOL <b>News</b>
A partial solar eclipse darkened European skies just after dawn this morning, casting an eerie darkness over the continent just as morning light was supposed to be spreading. But cloud cover prevented sky-gazers across much of the ...
robert shumake
Fox <b>News</b> Fails | worldwide hippies
The people over at Fox News have caused many laughs, cries and broken television screens in 2010 and usually in that order. The network has created so many blunders and mistakes that its mere existence as a news agency is in of itself ...
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Dawn Comes Twice in European Solar Eclipse - AOL <b>News</b>
A partial solar eclipse darkened European skies just after dawn this morning, casting an eerie darkness over the continent just as morning light was supposed to be spreading. But cloud cover prevented sky-gazers across much of the ...
robert shumake
Making maple syrup in a hotter world
It's hard to take big-picture global temperature increases and bring them down to a personal level—partly because of that confusion between weather and climate, and partly because scientists simply have a better understanding what is very likely to happen in an averaged-out global system, than they have of how changes in that global system are likely to affect your backyard.
I like the way Climate Wisconsin is trying to bridge that gap. First, they use interactive visuals to show the local symptoms of climate change, like rising average temperatures and fewer days of ice cover of Wisconsin lakes. Then, they connect those symptoms to Wisconsin life. If these trends continue, what impact will they have on things like fishing, forestry, farming and, yes, the making of maple syrup.
It's a hard line to walk. The family featured in this video has recently experienced some of the worst years for making maple syrup in four generations. But, because weather isn't climate, next year could be better for them, even as the climate, overall, continues to warm. At the same time, though, climate change is likely to have long-term impacts on where and how well sugar maples can grow—and when, and for how long, their sap runs in spring.
I think this video and the related essay do a better-than-average job of making that distinction. This family won't be out of business next year. But, over time, climate change is very likely to make this work harder for them. The harder it gets, Wisconsin traditions associated with maple syrup making will become less common—and the 5-million-dollar syrup industry will bring less money to the state.
Also, I just finished re-reading Little House in the Big Woods, and it's fun to see how the process of maple syrup production has, and hasn't, changed since Grandpa Ingalls threw a sugaring-off party at his Wisconsin cabin in the late 1860s. Check out the taps they hammer into the maples. They look just like the Little House illustrations, but instead of draining into wooden buckets, the sap now flows into plastic bags.
Thanks to agroman for Submitterating!
As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.
It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."
For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:
I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.
So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).
Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."
Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.
I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.
But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.
The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?
Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."
Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?
robert shumake detroit
robert shumake
Fox <b>News</b> Fails | worldwide hippies
The people over at Fox News have caused many laughs, cries and broken television screens in 2010 and usually in that order. The network has created so many blunders and mistakes that its mere existence as a news agency is in of itself ...
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Dawn Comes Twice in European Solar Eclipse - AOL <b>News</b>
A partial solar eclipse darkened European skies just after dawn this morning, casting an eerie darkness over the continent just as morning light was supposed to be spreading. But cloud cover prevented sky-gazers across much of the ...
robert shumake
Fox <b>News</b> Fails | worldwide hippies
The people over at Fox News have caused many laughs, cries and broken television screens in 2010 and usually in that order. The network has created so many blunders and mistakes that its mere existence as a news agency is in of itself ...
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Dawn Comes Twice in European Solar Eclipse - AOL <b>News</b>
A partial solar eclipse darkened European skies just after dawn this morning, casting an eerie darkness over the continent just as morning light was supposed to be spreading. But cloud cover prevented sky-gazers across much of the ...
robert shumake
When looking at an old mobile home, what do you see? If you are like most people, you would see a heap of worthless junk. When I see an old mobile home or "trailer" as some tend to call it I see easy money. You can take an older home and remodel it if needed, or simply spruce it up, and resell it for a fantastic yield on your investment. But first you must find a suitable home that will make a tidy profit. This is how you do it.
Locating a suitable home is usually easy. Most of the time I find my homes by riding through manufactured home parks and looking for "For Sale" signs. There are usually a few homes for sale in any given mobile home park. When you see a sign, stop and get out! Stretch your legs and knock on the door. Inquire about the home and ask to see the inside. This is very important because there can be many defects inside that are undetectable from the exterior.
When inspecting the inside of the home, try to be pleasant with the seller. It is important that the seller have a positive vibe from you before negotiating a possible purchase. Ask questions while touring the home such as "why are you selling the home?", "what is the age of the home?", "Does the air conditioner work?" "Do the appliances go with it?", "Is the roof OK?". All the while, you should be looking at everything. Check for soft floors when walking from room to room. Look up at the ceiling and look for water stains or mold the telltale signs of a leaky roof. Remember the seller will usually lie to you if there is a problem, but don't worry about it as it is just part of the process of negotiating a good deal. Make mental notes of any defects you see, such as broken windows or doors Look at the carpets and linoleum. Any defects are significant bargaining tools to get the price down when making an offer.
Once you have walked around the inside, take a brief walk around the exterior. Check for signs of any damage. You should always look at the roof for signs of rust if it has a metal roof. If it has shingles, are they flat or are they curling upward? These are things that will need to be addressed before you resell the home at a later date. Is the skirting in good condition? Look for holes or missing pieces. What about the insulation under the home? Make sure it is in repairable condition and not dragging on the ground.
Now is the time to ask the seller how much they are asking for the home. You should also ask if the taxes are current and if they owe any money on the home. Negotiate the price down the best you can without offending the seller. Never pay the asking price for an old mobile home. Always offer thirty percent less or more, depending on the repairs needed and the market value in your area. If they won't budge on the price point out any obvious defects that you noted earlier and remind them that you will need to repair them if you purchase the home from them. Remind them that you are looking at several homes, and you must take the best deal that you can find. Also relay to the seller that you are willing and able to pay cash for the home. This usually gets the seller's attention.
Once you have struck a deal with the seller you must check with the park manager to make sure that the home can stay in the park. Never pay for the home without speaking to the park manager. Introduce yourself and listen to what the park manager has to say about the home. It is important that you befriend the park manager, because without her approval, you may not be able to do any business in their park. Many park managers will require older homes to be removed when they are sold in order to make room for newer homes. If the manager requires the new owner to remove the home, walk away from the deal. It is just too costly in most case to move a home to a new location. The cost of the move is usually more than the home is worth.
You can make money with mobile homes by following a few simple methods. The next installment will cover what to do next after aquiring a mobile home for resale.
robert shumake detroit
Fox <b>News</b> Fails | worldwide hippies
The people over at Fox News have caused many laughs, cries and broken television screens in 2010 and usually in that order. The network has created so many blunders and mistakes that its mere existence as a news agency is in of itself ...
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Dawn Comes Twice in European Solar Eclipse - AOL <b>News</b>
A partial solar eclipse darkened European skies just after dawn this morning, casting an eerie darkness over the continent just as morning light was supposed to be spreading. But cloud cover prevented sky-gazers across much of the ...
robert shumake detroit
robert shumake
Making maple syrup in a hotter world
It's hard to take big-picture global temperature increases and bring them down to a personal level—partly because of that confusion between weather and climate, and partly because scientists simply have a better understanding what is very likely to happen in an averaged-out global system, than they have of how changes in that global system are likely to affect your backyard.
I like the way Climate Wisconsin is trying to bridge that gap. First, they use interactive visuals to show the local symptoms of climate change, like rising average temperatures and fewer days of ice cover of Wisconsin lakes. Then, they connect those symptoms to Wisconsin life. If these trends continue, what impact will they have on things like fishing, forestry, farming and, yes, the making of maple syrup.
It's a hard line to walk. The family featured in this video has recently experienced some of the worst years for making maple syrup in four generations. But, because weather isn't climate, next year could be better for them, even as the climate, overall, continues to warm. At the same time, though, climate change is likely to have long-term impacts on where and how well sugar maples can grow—and when, and for how long, their sap runs in spring.
I think this video and the related essay do a better-than-average job of making that distinction. This family won't be out of business next year. But, over time, climate change is very likely to make this work harder for them. The harder it gets, Wisconsin traditions associated with maple syrup making will become less common—and the 5-million-dollar syrup industry will bring less money to the state.
Also, I just finished re-reading Little House in the Big Woods, and it's fun to see how the process of maple syrup production has, and hasn't, changed since Grandpa Ingalls threw a sugaring-off party at his Wisconsin cabin in the late 1860s. Check out the taps they hammer into the maples. They look just like the Little House illustrations, but instead of draining into wooden buckets, the sap now flows into plastic bags.
Thanks to agroman for Submitterating!
As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.
It was January 1995, and Newt Gingrich, now considered a right-wing bomb thrower, was taking the gavel from Tom Foley. After taking the oath of office, he delivered a speech that praised FDR as "the greatest president of the 20th century" and presented concern for the least among us as a shared national objective. "The balanced budget is the right thing to do," he said. "But it does not in my mind have the moral urgency of coming to grips with what is happening to the poorest Americans."
For the incoming Republican speaker, reducing poverty and lifting the poor into the middle class was a moral imperative beyond the left vs. right battlefield -- not just the purview of lefties, socialists, and community organizers:
I say to those Republicans who believe in total privatization, you cannot believe in the Good Samaritan and explain that as long as business is making money we can walk by a fellow American who is hurt and not do something.... If you cannot afford to leave the public housing project, you are not free. If you do not know how to find a job and do not know how to create a job, you are not free. If you cannot find a place that will educate you, you are not free. If you are afraid to walk to the store because you could get killed, you are not free.
So now, with poverty higher than it was 16 years ago, with greater income inequality, and with the middle class struggling to hold on, what will Speaker Boehner make his number one priority? According to the Washington Post, it's "cutting spending," followed by repealing the healthcare law, and "helping get our economy moving" (no specifics on how he plans to do that).
Yet we saw on 60 Minutes that he's very aware of how fragile the American Dream has become, telling Lesley Stahl, "I can't go to a school anymore. I used to go to a lot of schools. And you see all these little kids running around. Can't talk about it." And he choked up when he did try to talk about "making sure these kids have a shot at the American Dream, like I did. It's important."
Interestingly, in his first speech as speaker, Gingrich also talked about being moved by the woes of school kids.
I have seldom been more shaken," he said, "than I was after the election when I had breakfast with two members of the Black Caucus. One of them said to me, 'Can you imagine what it is like to visit a first-grade class and realize that every fourth or fifth young boy in that class may be dead or in jail within 15 years? And they are your constituents and you are helpless to change it?' For some reason, I do not know why, maybe because I visit a lot of schools, that got through. I mean, that personalized it. That made it real, not just statistics, but real people.
But the trajectory of our political discourse over the last decade and a half has meant that taking on poverty has gone from a moral imperative and shared national objective to an afterthought -- or no thought at all.
The question is, is there anything that can be done to help Boehner make the connection between the policies he supports and the effect those policies have on the kids who bring him to tears?
Newt Gingrich failed to follow through on the moral imperative he identified in his first speech as speaker, trading in his moral vision and replacing it 15 months later with an announcement that the Republican agenda could be reduced to six words: "Earn more, keep more, do more."
Will Boehner's take be "Earn more, keep more, cut more"? Or is there a chance he will surprise us? Maybe it's because it's close enough to Christmas that I still believe in miracles, but wouldn't it be great if the John Boehner who takes the gavel on Wednesday is the one who weeps at thought of kids denied a shot at the American Dream?
robert shumake
Fox <b>News</b> Fails | worldwide hippies
The people over at Fox News have caused many laughs, cries and broken television screens in 2010 and usually in that order. The network has created so many blunders and mistakes that its mere existence as a news agency is in of itself ...
Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net
Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.
Dawn Comes Twice in European Solar Eclipse - AOL <b>News</b>
A partial solar eclipse darkened European skies just after dawn this morning, casting an eerie darkness over the continent just as morning light was supposed to be spreading. But cloud cover prevented sky-gazers across much of the ...
robert shumake
robert shumake detroit
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