Locations Illégales!

Speaking of more things French the city of Paris is suing Airbnb for 12.5 million euros ($14 million).

The city of Paris says that Airbnb published illegal rental advertisements.  Specifically, Airbnb failed to include a city registration number that is used to enforce compliance with a 120 day maximum on rentals per year. 

At 65,000 rental listings Paris happens to be Airbnb’s single largest market in the world. 

Founded in 2008 in San Francisco - Airbnb matches people wishing to rent out all or part of their homes to temporary guests via a website.

Le Champignon

Since the days of Molière, Voltaire and Flaubert, the French have celebrated their pharmacies and the local pharmacist. 

Without a doubt the French pharmacy is not to be confused with an American drugstore.  You won’t find cigarettes, liquor, groceries, greeting cards, magazines or other convenience store items such as you will find in a Walgreens or CVS.  Of course, you will not find a bottle of aspirin in a grocery store in France.   

When traveling it is easy to spot a Gallic pharmacy.  Simply look for the universal green cross.  And if you are suffering a traveler's malady of some sort the pharmacist will set you right with a scrip and save you a trip to a doctor. 

Lesser known and one of the most important functions of the French pharmacist is that of mushroom identification.  Pharmacists in France are trained in mycology.  All French pharmacists are required to study mushroom taxonomy as part of their training and provide the service of examining your basket of wild-foraged fungi.

Thus, if you are a mushroom hunter, and as a public service, you can take the mushrooms you find to the pharmacy to ensure that they are edible.  In the fall of the year it would not be unusual to note lines of men and women toting bags and baskets to have their woodland and field fungi inspected by the pharmacist before they are incorporated into rich and delicious French cooking - or dried and preserved for future use..    

Raising a toast to the French pharmacist.  Vive la difference!

Tweet of the Absurd

 

The president frequently brags that tariffs he has imposed on imports have not only hurt China but represent a windfall to the US Treasury.  Once again he is being untruthful.  If a dose of the truth and simple math make your head hurt stop now and read no further. 

 

To be clear - tariffs are nothing more than a tax on imports.  United States importers (not China) pay them.  The US importer either absorbs the tax or passes it along to the consumer.  There is no getting around the fact that it is an American company or individual paying the tax.  The Chinese do not pay it. 

 

What about the windfall to the treasury? 

Thru the end of last year the Republican tax increase on imported goods amounted to about $12 billion (give or take) - $8 billion of which came from imported Chinese products.  Within the context of a $3.4 trillion revenue stream that is fractions of cents.  Frequently described as a rounding error.  Nevertheless, 'billions' sounds big so humor me with my continuation of this simple analysis.  It is not rocket science.  I promise.

 

The president's sin of omission is the flip side of the coin - namely the Republican welfare payments to American farmers and ranchers harmed by the Republican tax increase.  $12 billion has been authorized for those payments.  To be clear - that is $12 billion dollars in - $12 billion dollars out.  Go ahead and double check my math.  Any mention of a windfall is fiction.  It is make-believe.  Adding insult to injury is that Americans paid for the entire round trip.

 

In the meantime there has been no end to the pain and economic damage done to hardworking farmers and ranchers.  Bankruptcies are at record levels in the farmbelt.  This is not make-believe – it is tangible and real people are being harmed. 

 

I'm no fool and observing this madness from the sidelines includes more than a measure of frustration.  And I continue to struggle with how ordinarily intelligent and moral individuals accept and condone the harm of reckless policymaking and the endless lies......

Talking Turkey

Yesterday's blizzard certainly didn't keep the turkeys indoors. 

A small flock of hens paid a call - likely to visit the bird feeder.

Of course, I got busted while taking some photos and they vamoosed.......

click on images for a closer look

Chuckle of the Day

An elderly man in Louisiana had owned a large farm for several years.    

He had a large pond in the back.  It was properly shaped for swimming, so he fixed it up nice with picnic tables, horseshoe courts, and some apple and peach trees.     

One evening the old farmer decided to go down to the pond, as he hadn't been there for a while, and look it over.        

He grabbed a five-gallon bucket to bring back some fruit.         

As he neared the pond, he heard voices shouting and laughing with glee.        

As he came closer, he saw it was a bunch of young women skinny-dipping in his pond.  

He made the women aware of his presence and they all went to the deep end.     

One of the women shouted to him, 'we're not coming out until you leave!'       

The old man frowned, 'I didn't come down here to watch you ladies swim naked or make you get out of the pond naked.'      

Holding the bucket up he said, ‘I’m here to feed the alligator...'      

Some old men can still think fast.

Old Habits Die Hard

I found my elderly, 92 year-old dog, staring intently out of the door this afternoon.  Focused and without drama she was almost on point.

Ring neck rooster visiting one of the bird feeders.

If you are a Labrador flusher-retriever your are always a flusher-retriever.  Always on duty.....

The Big Melt?

Or is it a big tease?

From yesterday at sunset....

click on the image for a closer look

 

At the time it was a balmy thirty-eight degrees and cooling - and the calving of the glacier on the roof of the machine shed was accompanied by a loud cracking and heaving sound as the frozen snow and ice began its descent to the garden below.  As in all years before - hopefully without taking the gutters with it.  

Only two years ago on February 22, 2017 I was greeted by the familiar yet distinctive Okalee call of the male redwing blackbird. 

Last year brought late snows and a dangerous blizzard with several feet of the white stuff in mid-April.

Spring is just around the corner so stay-tuned for a report on the signs of its arrival....

Sunset

click on image for a closer look

Sunset tonight. 

The contrails are from American Eagle flight 4500 – LaGuardia to Minneapolis.  Embraer ERJ – 175LR cruising effortlessly at 38,000 feet.  

The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of narrow-body short- to medium-range twin-engine jet airliners - carrying 66 to 124 passengers - manufactured by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer.   This jet has been a commercial success primarily due to its ability to efficiently serve lower-demand routes while offering many of the same amenities and features of larger jets.

Friday Music

The Last Time is a song by the English rock band the Rolling Stones and the band's first single written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.  Recorded at RCA Studios in Hollywood, California in January 1965, this was the band's third UK single to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart, spending three weeks at the top in March and early April 1965.  It reached number two in the Irish Singles Chart in March 1965.      

Although the song is credited to Jagger and Richards, the refrain is very close to This May Be the Last Time, a 1958 song by the Staple Singers.  In 2003, Richards acknowledged this, saying: "we came up with 'The Last Time', which was basically re-adapting a traditional gospel song that had been sung by the Staple Singers, but luckily the song itself goes back into the mists of time." The Rolling Stones' song has a main melody and a hook (a distinctive guitar riff) that were both absent in the Staple Singers' version.  Phil Spector, whose 'Wall of Sound' approach can be heard on the recording, assisted with the production.     

Footage still exists of a number of performances of this song by the Rolling Stones in 1965 including The Ed Sullivan Show.  Wiki 

Chatechism of the Day

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love commits me here, ever this day, be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide, Amen.      

In the Roman Catholic tradition of the Christian faith this is a simple traditional prayer for the intercession of the guardian angel.   It is frequently the very first prayer learned by a child – at least it was for me – and is a reminder God's love.  Moreover, if you can implore a guardian angel to support the child in a loving way – all the better.  Kids get into a great deal of dangerous mischief.  At least I did.  Parents need all the help they can implore. 

Only a couple of weeks ago I heard this prayer for the very first time in likely sixty years. 

Whammo!  It was like yesterday I was at my bedside reciting the very same words.

Odd, how these rather fond vestiges of childhood remind an old guy of his mom, church and most basic of early beliefs.  Innocent as it was for sure.
 
Just so you know (and lest ye are of little faith)  - I have a Guardian Angel. 
 
I am living proof......

The Big Lie

Faced with the fact that Donald Trump has yet to lay the first brick of his promised border wall - the president and his campaign have started relying upon the calculated tactic of linguistic hocus-pocus.  Namely, assertively wishing the wall into existence. 

The recent campaign rally in El Paso showcased the rollout. The crowd in attendance was chanting - "Build the wall!  Build the wall!"   To which the President artfully broke the 8th Commandment with his response - “Now, you really mean, ‘Finish that wall,’ because we’ve built a lot of it.”   

The rally also featured ginormous placards with the words “Finish the Wall” evidence of the Trump campaign’s decision to convince his believers that the unbuilt, imaginary, make-believe and fictional wall is already real. 

Reuters

 

Without getting too clinical about the mass psychology of this spectacle it is all quite fascinating to witness unfolding.  

A fantasy that doesn’t exist is accepted by the masses so it can become a belief.  Clever.  

If you will excuse me – I have to make more popcorn......    

Snow Moon

Native Americans have long grown familiar with this moon.  Members of the Cherokee nation refer to this month’s full moon as the Bone Moon.  This was a consequence of depleted food stores and the necessity of cracking-open bones to access the marrow for survival food.  

Those of the Kalapuya nation referred to this as the Out of Food Moon.   For others it was the Little Famine Moon or the Hunger Moon.  For the Cherokee the association with hunger and starvation also included a brush with death.  And the people use this as an opportunity to communicate with dead ancestors during the Bone Moon.   

Indeed, these ancient native tribes named this moon after the way trees cracked in the cold, or how people had to huddle around a fire for warmth.  My own people – the ancient Celts – remember this as the Moon of Ice as it is associated with the coldest month of the year.  On a more upbeat note it is the Hopi tribe of the southwest who call this the Moon of Purification and Renewal. 

Photo - NASA.gov

 

This close association with the renewal that is marked by the arrival of spring is much more appealing to me than bones and death.   We have modern refrigeration, canning, grocers, central heat, woodstoves, Merlot and Netflix.   Starvation is rare.  And when I arise in the morning to take my girls out after breakfast I’m beginning to witness the return of the migratory songbirds. 

If you’ve scored a clear night tonight you will not want to miss this.  As February is the snowiest month of the year this is also known as a Snow Moon. 

Raising a toast to clear winter nights, a rising full moon and the return of spring.

Cheers....

Pollution By Another Name

One of the benefits of rural life is the darkness of the night heavens.  With only about half-dozen neighbors around here and many miles of distance from the street lights of a city or town the opportunity for amateur astronomy is pretty good.  Especially this time of year when the cold and dry conditions of winter creates the clearest of skies for night viewing.  There just isn't much in the way of light pollution to get in the way of viewing the night skies.

Living in America also has its advantages as the vastness of our country – relative to our friends on the other side of the pond – provides more places and spaces for excellent star-gazing opportunities.  Again, little if any light pollution.   

I just recently learned of an effort being mounted to explore and preserve the last remnants of the English night sky.  The British Astronomical Society has joined forces with The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) to launch the great Star Count of 2019. 

A 2015 study named Night Blight made use of satellite imagery to conclude that only 22 percent of England experiences night skies completely untouched by light pollution.  The numbers improve for neighboring Scotland and Wales as smaller populations mean fewer lights, less light pollution and better viewing conditions. 

Image - NASA.Gov

 

This is a rather ambitious citizen science project and astronomers have devised a novel mechanism to count the stars and crowd source the data.  The Brits are to go outside in the cold winter night and locate the constellation Orion - easily identified by its four corners and three-star belt.   

Star gazers are asked to count the number of stars viewed within the rectangle made by the four corner stars.  They can include the three stars of the belt in the count but not the four stars making the corners.     Image - NASA.Gov

When last performed in 2014 - 59 percent of the 1,000 participants observed 10 or fewer stars within the four corners; evidence of high levels of light pollution.  Under ideal conditions 4 percent of the participants viewed 30 or more stars.   

Data will be submitted via the CPRE website and the results used to assist in future campaigns to reduce light pollution.  That may include use of motion detectors, programmable LED fixtures and shielding.  More importantly it is projects like this that get people out of doors and viewing the magnificence of the heavens that has the greatest impacts. 

You can learn more about this here:  https://www.cpre.org.uk/what-we-do/countryside/dark-skies/star-count-2019 

Raising a toast to dark winter skies....

Winter Critter Identification

I happen to be one of the rare individuals who embraces winter.  The cold doesn't particularly bother me as long as I'm dressed for the conditions (and not fighting for survival).  The night skies are clear and sharp and offer the most excellent opportunities to engage in amateur astronomy - and on occasion the northern lights pay a visit to my latitude.  There are no mosquitos or sociopath yellow jacket wasps.  And there is evidence of the animals on the landscape - namely their tracks that are easily found in the snow.  And it's not like you have to travel far at all as long as you are observant.

Just for fun I've posted a handful of photos of animal tracks found in the yard immediately adjacent to the house.  See if you can match them with the animals listed below. 

 

 

click on images to enlarge

 

Choose from the following:  feral cat, ring neck pheasant, dark-eyed junco, deer mouse, whitetail deer 

 

Of Pigs and Pythons

American Baby Boomers are defined as those individuals born 1946 through 1964.  Considering the aging hippie stereotypes this is an interesting demographic to study from a cultural perspective.  Assessing the economic impact if this huge cohort is equally interesting. In order to better visualize this population bulge moving through life’s successive stages one demographer colorfully described boomers as the pig moving thru the python

 
Consider this:  The world’s 65-plus population is presently at a historical high of over 600 million people.  It is projected to hit a full billion by 2030.  And 1.6 billion by 2050.  Joseph Coughlin of the MIT AgeLab - author of "The Longevity Economy" – suggests that longevity is "the biggest business opportunity of the 21st Century."   
 
The longevity economy is the emerging market to rule them all: the size of a new continent rising from the sea, populated with eager consumers but seemingly without the usual emerging market uncertainties. After all, the demographic seeds of our older future were sown long ago in the form of rising life expectancies, falling fertility rates, and (in many countries) a postwar baby boom now striding toward its later years.  

And unlike the risks associated with what we have come to know as traditional emerging markets - namely places like Brazil, Russia, India and China - Boomers are going to exert their economic influence in wealthy countries.   

The amount of money involved is mind-boggling.  In just the U.S. the spending of Americans ages 50 and up in 2015 accounted for nearly $8 trillion worth of economic activity.  According to the Boston Consulting Group by 2030 the spending of those age 55 and older will have accounted for half of all domestic consumer spending growth since the Great Recession.  Yikes!

I've never considered myself a member of an emerging market but it is a novel supposition and I suppose there is something to this.  And I rather like the notion of making an impact. 

So, take your love beads, tie-dye, anti-war protests, sex, drugs and rock n’ roll and stick 'em in your ear.  I’m raising a toast to the boomer demographic juggernaut passing thru the economic python... 

Cheers!

Friday Morning Brawling

On this day in history, February 15, 1798, Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut assaulted Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon with a wooden walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.  Griswold struck Lyon about the head, shoulders and arms, while Lyon attempted to deflect the blows as they landed.  Lyon then turned and ran to the fireplace - arming himself with a pair of metal tongs he re-engaged the conflict.  Griswold tripped Lyon and struck him in the face as he lay upon on the ground, at which point the two were separated.  After a break of several minutes, however, Lyon surprised Griswold with a new attack with the tongs and the brawl was re-ignited.  Thus began an extended period in history when governing was less genteel – at least measured by today’s standards.   

Nowadays the Congress of the United States still witnesses its share of name-calling and verbal abuse.  And it is difficult for the average political junkie to get thru his online news feeds without some reference made about the perceived hurt to some legislator’s delicate sensibilities as a consequence of a gesture, a smirk, or giving someone the hairy eyeball.  Yet we rarely witness anything physical.  By historical standards today’s Congress is a collection of wimps.  Only a couple of hundred years ago violence and physical combat was the norm in our nation’s capital – with pistols and/or knives drawn, canings, whippings, beatings and fisticuffs.  

The official history of the House of Representatives documents the most infamous floor brawl ever as Members debated the Kansas Territory’s pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution late into the night of February 5-6, 1858.   

Shortly before 2 a.m., Pennsylvania Republican Galusha Grow and South Carolina Democrat Laurence Keitt exchanged insults, then blows. “In an instant the House was in the greatest possible confusion,” the Congressional Globe reported. More than 30 Members joined the melee.  Northern Republicans and Free Soilers joined ranks against Southern Democrats.  Speaker James Orr, a South Carolina Democrat, gaveled furiously for order and then instructed Sergeant-at-Arms Adam J. Glossbrenner to arrest noncompliant Members.  Wading into the “combatants,” Glossbrenner held the House Mace high to restore order. Wisconsin Republican John “Bowie Knife” Potter and Cadwallader Washburn ripped the hairpiece from the head of William Barksdale, a Democrat from Mississippi.  The melee dissolved into a chorus of laughs and jeers, but the sectional nature of the fight powerfully symbolized the nation’s divisions. When the House reconvened two days later, a coalition of Northern Republicans and Free Soilers narrowly blocked referral of the Lecompton Constitution to the House Territories Committee.  Kansas entered the Union in 1861 as a free state.         

In her new book, Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman - Yale professor of history and American studies - found that violence used to be the norm in the Capitol.  Her research revealed that between 1830 and 1860, there were more than seventy violent incidents between congressmen in the House and Senate chambers or on nearby streets and dueling grounds.        

On March 4, 1985, Thomas Downey (D-NY) confronted Robert Dornan (R-CA).  Downey approached Dornan in response to a speech he had made a couple of days earlier before the Conservative Political Action Conference.  In that speech he referred to Downey as a "draft-dodging wimp" because during the Vietnam War, Downey received a medical deferment from the draft as a consequence of a perforated eardrum.  Noteworthy is the fact that Downey had been active in the anti-war movement.  In any event, Downey confronted Dornan, attracting dozens of witnesses.  Dornan claimed Downey grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around, asking if he had actually called him a wimp.  Dornan answered "I did and you are." The exchange became heated, and at some point Dornan accused Downey of having cost him a job at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency a couple of years earlier.   According to Downey, as he began to walk away, Dornan grabbed him by the tie and collar and threatened him with "bodily harm."  

That incident was three and a half decades ago – further evidence of the rarity of physical hostilities in our modern congress.  I am of the opinion that restraint is the norm.  Today's 24/7 news cycle traveling at light speed may sometimes leave you with the impression that congress is one tweet away from open warfare and civil collapse.  For sure you needn't look very far to find an ample dose of snarkiness in those hallowed chambers.  And that's OK in my view.  A handful of hurt feelings are certainly better than doing battle with a fireplace tongs and a walking stick.

    
  

A Story For Your Sweetie

In the Roman Catholic tradition of the Christian faith St. Valentine is the Patron Saint of betrothed couples, happy marriages, love, lovers, bee keepers, fainting, epilepsy, plague, travelers, young people and likely much more.  Whew.  His feast day is today.

There is not an encyclopedic volume of historical information about this individual and as a consequence the Church removed St. Valentine from the General Roman Calendar in 1969.  Nevertheless, he remains recognized as a saint.       

What is accepted knowledge is that Valentine was imprisoned for committing the most heinous of crimes - namely marrying Christian couples and aiding Christians being persecuted by Emperor Claudius of Rome. 

Angered to the point of rage Claudius commanded Valentine to renounce his faith or be beaten with clubs and beheaded.  Refusing the emperor - Valentine was executed outside Rome's Flaminian Gate on February 14, 269.     

In case you’re wondering if Valentine was a real person - archaeological excavations have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him.  In 496 Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration honoring his martyrdom.      

Today his relics can be found throughout the world – including his skull at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome.    

Happy Valentine’s Day.

You can learn more about the history of this Saint here. 

Eleven Year Anniversary

Today is the anniversary of one of the earliest events marking the start of the financial crisis eleven years ago and the beginning of the Great Recession. 

On February 13, 2008 President Bush signed the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 approving $168 billion tax rebates. 

The 2006 housing market slowdown had affected the economy and the Bush tax rebates were an attempt to prevent a recession. Unfortunately, it was late summer before any checks arrived and too late to prevent the recession. 

By this time Libor rates had risen above the fed funds rate resulting in banks that were afraid to lend to each other. Furthermore, those banks had too many subprime mortgages on their books including worthless mortgage-backed securities.  The economic skies began to darken as storm clouds gathered.

Two Days to the Deadline

This email arrived today from the central planning committee.  Click on it for a closer look.

It requires translation as follows:  

Time to sign-up for inadequate Republican welfare payments made to assuage the economic damage inflicted upon farmers and ranchers in retaliation for the Republican tax increases on imported steel, aluminum and other goods. 

This is all so self-inflicted. 

It sure ain’t the quaint old free-trade, Chamber of Commerce GOP from the days of yore.  This is the new and improved contemporary Republican party of protectionism, tariffs and the picking of winners and losers.   Who knew?


Here's to hope that America's farming community survives this economic perversity....

New Kids on the Block

The Unicode Consortium recently announced the introduction of 59 new emoji along with 171 new variations on existing emoji. 

What a surprise.  Who knew there was existing digital infrastructure for such a critical consortium.   

The new emoji pay homage to the less-abled as they include a deaf person, people in wheelchairs, people with probing canes, a  prosthetic arm and leg and service dogs. 

They also include the arcane:  a sloth, an otter, an orangutan, an ice cube, garlic, falafel and a ringed planet.  Something I image will receive regular daily use. 

You can learn more about this critically important phenomenon here.