Barn: Backfill time...

Barn: Backfill time...  The concrete in the foundation is cured, so work has started again.  The next big step is backfilling soil that was dug out of the foundation trench, and adjusting the height of the soil on the interior (under the floor).  Both started today.  Before the interior is filled, the builder lined the outside with foam insulation, to keep heat (from the floor) from leaking through the foundation.  He also made a hole in the foundation to run the septic line through (there will be a toilet and sink in the barn).  The interior is being filled first with a layer of “pit run” – gravel the way it occurs naturally, with mixed sizes of rock in a matrix of soil.  This will be filled to 3" below the needed level, then the final 3" will be a layer of pea gravel.  Then comes a layer of foam insulation, topped by heating pipes, and finally the poured concrete floor.

Here are some photos from today's work:

Interior of foundation with blue foam insulation

Drilling a hole for the septic line

One load of "pit run" gravel

Rosetta is just 84 km (50 miles) from Comet 67P...

Rosetta is just 84 km (50 miles) from Comet 67P...  And getting closer every day!

Not following the narrative...

Not following the narrative...  Scientists link solar activity to climate change.  Wait, what?  Not man-made carbon dioxide?  Natural solar variability?  Oh, noz!  There goes the warmists main talking point!

“That’s what happens in totalitarian societies.”

“That’s what happens in totalitarian societies.”  That's a quote from Professor Alan Dershowitz – a notable progressive law professor – on the subject of Governor Rick Perry's indictment for abuse of power.  Dershowitz also compares the indictment to what happened in the old Soviet Union.

At this point there is a long list of progressives and Democrats who have condemned the indictment against Perry.  Even reliably progressive rags like the New York Times are, however mildly, critical of the indictment.  I'm beginning to think that the Texas Democrats (probably with DNC connivance) have inadvertently increased the (low) probability of Perry becoming the Republican presidential candidate in 2016, along with the (higher) probability of him becoming the vice presidential candidate...

“Because that's just the way it is in the Land of the Free.”

“Because that's just the way it is in the Land of the Free.”  Imagine that for some reason you owned a set of antique bagpipes that you played competitively.  These bagpipes, which you own legally, happen to have some components made of ivory.  What do you suppose you'd have to go through to take those bagpipes to (say) Canada and bring them back home?

Mark Steyn has the unbelievable details.  As I read his piece (and other articles I found on the incidents), I just wanted to crawl into a corner and cry – for the loss of the land of the free that America once was.  Now we're the land of the bureaucratic boot, smashing our faces into the dirt...

I'd bet on Amazon...

I'd bet on Amazon...  Hachette (an old-school publishing company) is in a pitched battle with Amazon for the hearts and minds of book authors.  Steve Cohen presents the case for authors to take Amazon's side in this fight, basically because book readership is in decline and Amazon is (much) more likely to foster the innovations needed to save the book concept.  I think he's gotten right to the heart of the matter.

Personally, I'm not sure that books (in the traditional sense of hundreds of pages of fixed text and images) have much chance of surviving the technological and cultural changes to the way we consume information (non-fiction) and entertainment (fiction).  I'm not even going to try to predict where things are going to go.  I can readily observe, though, how my own habits have changed.  I'm much less likely these days to buy a non-fiction book (though I still do buy quite a few) – there's so much fresh, high quality, curated information available on the web that many of my non-fiction needs and desires are satisfied with a few clicks, for free.  I haven't found any equivalent for book-length fiction, but ... there's so much other stuff that I read on the web that my daily reading time has been reduced.  I still buy a lot of fiction books, but probably less than half what I did just 10 years ago.  That doesn't mean I'm reading less, though – I think I'm actually reading more, in total.  It's just that a lot of it is on the web these days.

I'll also note that without any exceptions known to me, the people I know who are younger than about 40 years old read vastly fewer books than I do.

But if any organization had a chance to save the notion of books, it would be be Amazon – an organization with a proven record of innovation and disruption, and the biggest bookseller in the world.  Hachette is the equivalent of the buggy manufacturer's association back in the early 1900s...

A tale of two cities...

A tale of two cities...  Peking on the left, Los Angeles on the right.  Peking is more attractive in this video than I expected it to be.  Los Angeles is shown at night, from a distance – the only way that place would ever be attractive!

You'll want to watch these in full-screen mode...