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Category Archives: Economic issues

Robots and inequality

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Amazon’s new automated store in Seattle. Source: Wikipedia Trump voters and consumers of Fox News are having the time of their lives these days, glorying in how their big man is sticking it to liberals, immigrants, and brown-skinned people. They actually feel safer, now that a con man is in the White House who feeds […]

Also filed in Culture, Political issues, Technology | | Comments (3)

eBay’ing from Japan

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Having spent an embarrassing amount of money lately on a film camera, lenses, and other stuff necessary for film photography, I certainly had noticed on eBay that some of the best deals and best prices were from Japanese dealers. I came across a portrait lens that looked so perfect and was so reasonably priced that […]

Also filed in Photography | | Comments (6)

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia, by Steven Stoll. Hill and Wang, 2017. 412 pages. ★★★★★ During the past couple of years, an extraordinary series of books have brought to our attention just what a sorry state the world is in. Ramp Hollow is the latest. Some of the others (many of which I have […]

Also filed in Political issues, Relocalization | | Comments (2)

Democracy in Chains

Sunday, July 2, 2017

Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, by Nancy MacLean. Viking, released June 13, 2017, 368 pages. This book has been out for just over two weeks, but already there are 65 Amazon reviews. With the exception of one 2-star rating, all the ratings are either 5 stars […]

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Looking for economic indicators

Monday, June 5, 2017

From our pockets to theirs Last year, we were transfixed by the horror of the 2016 election. So far this year, we can’t take our eyes off the train wreck of Trump in the White House. Most of us haven’t been paying much attention to the economy. It would be smart to take a look. […]

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More Buffalo China

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

This blog gets a lot of visits from people who are interested in the history of Buffalo China. I would collect Buffalo china if I had anywhere to put it, but as things are I’ve collected only enough Buffalo china for the table, and no more than will fit in the kitchen cabinets. But recently, […]

Also filed in The way we were | | Comments (1)

2016: Record temperature for 3rd straight year

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Wikipedia Commons: Polar bear starving on Svalbard because of ice melting early Reports are out today that 2016 set a record for global temperature for the third year in a row. A lot of people don’t quite grasp an important part of the science of global warming. A few degrees doesn’t seem like much. But […]

Also filed in Political issues, Sustainable living | | Comments (1)

“Where to Invade Next”

Monday, May 30, 2016

It’s easy to dislike Michael Moore. He’s rude, and he looks like a slob. But his documentaries fill an important need, because he tells us what we otherwise wouldn’t hear. In this blog, I’ve often mentioned the Overton window. That’s the window of allowable discourse, the range of ideas that the mainstream media will talk […]

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In search of environmental justice

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Since 1974, the people of the Walnut Tree community have lived in the shadow of Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Steam Station, Duke’s largest coal-burning power plant in the Carolinas. Not until 2008 were scrubbers installed on the plant’s stacks. For all those years, people in Walnut Tree were at Ground Zero for the plant’s emissions […]

Also filed in Political issues, Stokes County | | Comments (2)

Kill your dryer

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

According to an article at grist.org, Americans spend about $9 billion a year on electricity to power their clothes dryers. While appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines have made great strides in energy efficiency, dryers have not. In 2014, the Natural Resources Defense Council published a “call for action” for more-efficient clothes dryers. It […]

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