December Night Sky

With cold, clear, view conditions for your holiday viewing pleasure you can catch both our moon and the Pleiades.  

This cluster of stars commonly known as the Seven Sisters is found in the constellation Taurus, the Bull.  In Greek mythology, Atlas' daughters turned into this group of stars.

Tonight and tomorrow the moon and Pleiades will cross the sky together in the eastern sky.

Fun Fact:  Subaru is the Japanese word for 'unite' as well as a term identifying this cluster of stars.  In 1953, five Japanese companies merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.  The resulting corporation adopted the star cluster as the official logo for its line of automobiles.  Fuji Heavy Industries, known as Subaru since 2017, is a global leader in both terrestrial and aerospace transportation.

 

Last Boat of the Line

The 41-foot United Coast Guard Boat Large (UTB) has been one of the most successful boats in Coast Guard history.  

Constructed of a welded aluminum hull and molded fiberglass superstructure this vessel was powered by twin Cummins diesel engines with conventional shafts and propellers. Over the course of 41 years this was the general workhorse for the Coast Guard. A three person crew performed law enforcement, search and rescue and firefighting duties.  

In all, 207 UTBs were built at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland, from 1973 to 1978. They have been credited with saving thousands of lives and millions of dollars in property.  Cost new (1979): $235,000. 

The last operational United States Coast Guard UTB is on permanent display in front of the Door County Maritime Museum in Sturgeon Bay, WI. The exterior is accessible to visitors and the interior for special events.  

CG-41410 went into service on July 1, 1977 at Station Milwaukee and served at a number of Lake Michigan stations in the succeeding 37 years. That included twice being stationed at the Sturgeon Bay Canal Station from April 26, 2002 until August 15, 2003 and again from June 12, 2007 until August 6, 2007. It was last stationed in Muskegon, Michigan. 

In keeping with standard USCG practice - boats of this size are numbered and not named. The hull number begins with the length followed by a sequential number. If you look closely the hull numbers on this vessel are colored gold. This signifies that it is the very last boat of it's class in service. 

Beginning in 2008 the aging UTB fleet was gradually retired and replaced with the 45 foot USCG Response Boat – Medium (RB-M). Half of the fleet is built here in northeast Wisconsin by Fincantieri Marinette Marine. Cost new: $2.4 million. 

Plenty of rich maritime history around these parts.

 

 

Quitting Time

Long day in the machine shed today.  New tires on the boat.  Big Blue tractor running.  Lawn tractor needs a battery replacement.  Snowblower summerized.  Flies and debris swept-up and vacuumed.  

 

 

Time to scratch my Belgian itch. 

This beer traces its roots back to the founding of the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium in 1366.  Master brewer Sébastien Artois purchased the brewery in 1717 and renamed it Brouwerij Artois. 

This is a European lager originally crafted from malted barley and saaz hops to celebrate the summer Solstice.  It is refreshing, smooth, with some citrus notes.  Very drinkable. Consider it a costlier lawnmower beer with year-round availability. 

Beginning next month the entire line of Stella adult beverages will be brewed here in the states by a small craft brewer popularly known as Anheuser-Busch InBev. 

Stella Artois Solstice Lager

4.5 ABV

 

The Last Tomato

If you are a regular reader you would know that at the beginning of October I picked all of the salvageable tomatoes from the garden and pulled my tomato plants up to be composted.  Many dozen semi-ripened and green tomatoes were moved to the countertop of the attached garage to finish ripening.

While technically not THE LAST tomato - one of the very last tomatoes found itself to a pizza pie as possibly one of the longest lasting garden tomatoes of the season.  Now commences nine months of wandering thru the desert of crappy supermarket tomatoes until the first arrivals of next year are picked for our dining pleasure.

If you have the opportunity look for these nifty, imported from Austria and Hungary, ready to bake Wewalka pizza crusts.  You might be able to locate a grocery that carries them here.

Fast and easy and particularly delicious when you add fresh shopped garden tomatoes to the topping.

Bake at 450F. for fifteen minutes. 

Boom!

Takes a Beating - Keeps On Cooking

Founded by William Coleman this company is known for producing a wide variety of camping and recreational use products. The first dating back to 1900 – the gasoline pressure lamp. 

The first pressurized gasoline camp stove was introduced in 1954 – the Model 413E. This variation was sold from 1954 thru 1961.  As a child I recall camping with mom and dad out of our venerable American Motors Rambler station wagon. Lacking a tent mom and dad bunked in the back of the wagon and I slept on the front seat. Dad hand-built screens to insert in the open windows for ventilation. Mom cooked on a borrowed and battered Coleman gasoline camp stove and I’d bet it was the first model 413E. 

I have pictures in my possession somewhere but I digress. 

In any event I brought these up out the basement last weekend thinking they might get some use this fall/winter. 

These are called Coleman Suitcase Camp Stoves. The smaller on top is a Model 425E manufactured January 1967. I purchased it used. The larger on on the bottom is a Model 413G manufactured April 1980. I purchased it new at Fleet Farm. 

They’re both two-burner models with the smaller stove capable of 14,000 BTU output on the main burner. If the secondary burner is engaged the output is 7500 BTU on the right and 6500 BTU on the left. The larger 413G replaced the 425E and not only boasts an output of 17,000 BTU (9,000 right and 8,000 left) but has a stronger grate capable of supporting heaver cast iron cookware. 

Both of these stoves have surface rust, dings and dents and plenty of scorching.  A camp patina I suppose. And they’ve cooked countless meals outdoors under a year-round range of conditions in both Canada and the United States. If only they could talk. 

I added some fresh gas and after tightening a loose fitting or two they both operate like champs. 

Manufactured in Wichita Kansas, USA - after 93 combined years of service – I figure the amortized cost per use is pretty small.

The lesson is:  hang-on to the good stuff - you never know when it might get put to use for a camping experience - or an emergency.  

Easy Peasy Pizza

This is a really nifty and easy-to-use pizza dough that I found in the dairy case at the Pick 'n Save in Sturgeon Bay.  I make every effort to keep one of these in the fridge when the opportunity arises to throw a pizza pie on the oven pizza stone.  

In any event I was looking at the labeling closely and noticed this:

Austria?  And sometimes it says Hungary.  How the heck does someone make pizza dough on the other side of the globe and sell it here?  That's amazing.  And as I found out quite the success story for a family business.  

From the web I learned this:

In 1987, European baker Johann Wewalka started selling his family’s traditional pastries in a small bakery outside of Vienna, Austria. Business was good, and word traveled quickly about his delicious baked items. At the request of some of his loyal customers, Johann would occasionally give out scraps of leftover dough, enabling them to bake their own pastries at home. It didn't take long before a line of patrons began forming outside the bakery at the end of each workday, all asking for his fresh dough scraps.
Voila! The demand for fresh dough was born. Following a considerable amount of work to ensure a refrigerated product could meet his high bakery standards, Mr. Wewalka introduced his line of packaged dough in 1994.
Today, Wewalka is one of the leading fresh dough producers in the world. The company provides products to more than 30 countries across Europe and Asia, and is now geared up and ready to meet the baking demands of America.

It's a remarkable testament to entrepreneurship and multinational business.

Who knew?  I'm going to pick-up some of the pie dough and give it a test drive.

You can learn more here - including store locations near you.....

L'Oréal to Remove the Word 'Whitening' From Its Products

Earlier this evening I posted the following on Face Book - only to take it down after reconsideration.  Upon reflection - better to publish my musings here instead of unnecessarily agitating anyone on Face Book.  The world is already too agitated.  After all, attendance here is voluntary.  Everything on FB is pretty much in your face on a subscribers news feed.  Besides, I can always redirect back to this venue if needed on Zuckerberg's cesspool of sloppy information.
_________________________________________________________________________ 

 L'Oréal to Remove the Word 'Whitening' From Its Products

Interesting to me was the news when I initially saw it this afternoon courtesy of a trusted friend.  At first blush my mind instantaneously flipped to:  ‘This is PC run-amok’.

Following a few moments of reflection while weeding in the garden it occurred that maybe I was letting one of my many biases cloud my thinking.  My former professional instincts have gathered a hint of rust in retirement.  And there is no longer a Bloomberg Terminal starring me in the face.  In any event, what I knew for sure was that L'Oréal is a ginormous company and that there might be more to this news than what we see on the surface.

I checked the interweb and with a few clicks learned that L'Oréal S.A. is the world's largest cosmetics company - a multinational with divisions in Europe and two additional continents. Global revenue in 2019 was about 30 billion € and they employ more than 80,000 individuals around the world.

The link at the bottom of this post redirects to the Harvard Business Review.  It is quite illustrative on many levels that much of L'Oréal’s corporate success derives from mastering the business side of multiculturalism. 

Who knew?

It is their business model.

The lesson from this news (to me at least) is that we all have triggering biases as a consequence of how we were raised, our culture, value system, etc. 

What I learned in almost 40 years of my previous life is that capitalism’s only bias is making money and that requires taking calculated risks.  And, of course, tailoring a plan and a portfolio to an individual client’s goals.  Professionals implicitly know that there is little if any room for risking the potential deleterious impact of personal biases in the very personal financial decisions of others seeking their guidance. 

Translation:  Ignore capitalism at your own peril.

There is already faux FB outrage about this announcement.  And I am hardly surprised.  What I will point out as a recovering financial guy is that it is not intellectually challenging to flip-off a 100 year-old multinational business as simply being politically correct.  It goes deeper.

L'Oréal is obviously taking a risk - and they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to take pains that this is a smart business decision. You can bet they surveyed, market-tested and focus-grouped this decision until the cows came home.

They likely know exactly what they’re doing - and why.  Moreover, attention-grabbing news like this during our troubles is basically free marketing.

Only time will tell if they got it right.

Between you and me I’d bet on them - not the laureate of random FB experts who couldn’t tell a share of stock from a brick.

Don’t take my word for this – I don’t give financial advice any longer.  I only warn of generally incomplete and useless FB content.

Call your trusted financial advisor on Monday for a professional opinion.

You may link to the Harvard Business Review here.

Fabulous Advertising

If there ever was an advertisement capable of a body slam this has got to be it.

Ouch.....

 

More People Ride on Goodyear Tires Than Any Other Kind

For your viewing enjoyment here is the authoritative compilation of The Best Dangerously Funny Goodyear Tire Commercials.

What I want to know is why these are only for the European market - and not shown here in the states.

Does Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company think we're a humorless lot living on this side of the big pond?

Anyway, these tickled my funny bone.

Enjoy....

Problem Solved

The Rage expandable broadheads I am using for my vertical bow use rubber O-rings to hold the blades in their place until they deploy upon impact.  One of them failed last weekend and if I had spares I cannot locate them. 

I could not find replacements at Gander or Fleet Farm.  So I Googled:  rubber O-ring for rage mechanical broadhead and the second hit was for a place in Washington called The O-Ring Store. 

 They stock and sell nothing but O-rings (and associated hydraulic stuff) online.  Two minutes of my time and $4 got me approximately 24 - 3/16^th inch - replacement rubber O-rings.  Sure, there was an additional $6 for shipping – nevertheless, very convenient and from the warming glow of my laptop. 

Wonderful thing the internet is.  Be sure to visit The O-Ring Store here.

Cage Free Crackers

Thanks to the thoughtful people over at PETA - after 116 years of captivity - animal crackers have been emancipated.  Yup, freed from their cages.  That's right.  Animal crackers are in the news.  
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals argued that the portrayal of the ubiquitous Barnum traveling circus of animal crackers confined behind bars was cruel and unusual punishment.  PETA’s argument was that the cracker animals ‘have no semblance of a natural life’.  As a consequence Mondelez - owner of Nabisco Brands – set them free.      

The new boxes are already arriving in stores this week. They show a zebra, an elephant, a lion, a giraffe and a gorilla roaming free, side-by-side, in peaceful harmony, upon a beautiful, sweeping African savanna.     

What someone should remind PETA about is that they have set free both predator and prey.  That zebra is going to get the short end of the stick from the lion.  So much for cruel and unusual punishment….

Old School Advertising

Yup - this is a real 1967 advertisement produced for the German airline Lufthansa.  It is a quirky throw-back to the Mad Men culture of the 1960s and features German tongue-in-cheek self deprecating humor of that era.  It is reminiscent of the oddball Volkswagen ads of the same 1960s.

You could get away with this fifty years ago and I think it is a good chuckle considering how morose and grim our culture has become.  Adult themed humor and some brief nudity may be sort of NSFW. 
 

Nobody Here But Us Chickens

Kentucky Fried Chicken ran out of chicken in the United Kingdom over the weekend forcing them to temporarily close most of their stores.   A few restaurants were continuing to offer a limited menu during shortened business hours; yet the chicken delivery problem is so severe that the company cannot say when operations will be back to normal.  

It’s not like there are no chickens to be had as there is plenty of chicken.  The issue is getting the chicken to the outlets that prepare it for consumption and sale.   Logistics firm - DHL - which took over deliveries for KFC recently - told Mirror Online: “Due to operational issues a number of deliveries in recent days have been incomplete or delayed”.   

While you wait you can learn more about the bottle neck here.

Sloganeering

On February 23^rd President Donald Trump made it exceedingly clear to US Steel Chief Executive Mario Longhie that Keystone XL had to Buy American:  We put you heavy into the pipeline business because we approved, as you know, the Keystone Pipeline, but they have to buy ... steel made in this country and pipelines made in this country.  

If you were paying attention to the President’s speech to Congress a few days ago You observed and heard this:  New American pipelines be made with American steel.  

Two statements from Trump.  Are they one and the same?  Or has the earth under the pipeline shifted?

Consider this.  Trump’s Executive Order calls for U.S. steel to be used in “all new pipelines, as well as retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipelines”.   Keystone XL (first proposed in 2008) is currently in the process of being constructed and as a consequence we learned today that it does not meet the definition of a new, retrofitted, repaired or expanded pipeline.  It does not count.

Alas, if I had to hazard a guess I’d bet The Base still believes that only good-old, red-blooded, all-American, US steel is going into Keystone XL because they heard Buy American.  And that's what will make America great again.   Correct?  

Nope.   

And the old switcheroo is slicker than snot.  Steve Bannon's fingerprints are all over this.  Nice.  The man is a master propagandist.  You can learn more here.

No Middle-Aged White Guys Were Harmed

Recent Hindu and Muslim immigrants are remarkably well-educated according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. On average, Hindus in the U.S. have nearly 16 years of schooling while Muslim Americans have nearly 14 years of schooling.  According to Pew - Jews in the U.S. average 14.7 years or schooling contrasted with 12.7 years for U.S. Christians.

Enjoying this level of education these immigrants typically find more lucrative positions thereby challenging assertions that immigrant workers are stealing jobs from native-born workers at the lower end of the job pyramid.

Fascinating.

You can read the entire story at NPR here. 

Paying-off an Old Debt

The Republic of Cuba has proposed to the Czech Republic a novel settlement of an old debt.  

Back when Cuba and Czechoslovakia were thick as thieves with the Soviet Union it seems that Cuba has reneged on repayment of development loans issued by other European nations.  So, here's the deal...

Rum.  $276 million dollars of this refreshing and intoxicating liquor.  One of the things that Cuba is notably good at is manufacturing good quality rum.  If the Castro family owed me money I'd run with the rum.  It's worth more than Cuban currency.  The Czechs should do the same.

Read more about the deal here.  If you want an easy Mojito Recipe there's this...

Truth In Advertising

800 jobs saved at a cost of $7 million? $8,750 per job.

Some might suggest that those employees are not going to pay that back in taxes. The employer is not going to pay that back. They tell you it's a shake-down - that you've allowed a company to hold employees hostage and was paid the ransom.

Others might suggest that President-elect Trump brandished both a carrot and a stick.  The offer of incentives and the threat of jeopardizing the $5 to $6 billion in federal contracts held by United Technologies (Carrier's parent).  The amount saved by moving jobs from Indiana to Monterrey was dwarfed compared to the amount at risk.

For sure it is a political win but not without some risk of moral hazard.  Perhaps business executives will threaten to offshore jobs in order to extract concessions, other may chose to circumvent a public battle with a future president and others may conclude that this is precedent for a future president to meddle directly in the corporate affairs of a specific company.  Heretofore, republicans have abhorred government interference in private enterprise.

So I dunno.  Are we watching a new paradigm unfold?  Time will tell.  What's missing in the news today is the fact that 1300 jobs are still going to Monterrey.  The truth is somewhere in the advertising.

Misguided Economics

Photo: Ty Wright/Bloomberg News

Appearing before a wall of garbage today Donald Trump announced his plans to plunge the United States into a deep and dark recession and reverse eight years of steady job growth.

The US Chamber of Commerce and all of us heretic elitists in the business and economic community wasted no time ripping Trump a new one.

Simpleton.

Details here in the Wall Street Journal.