Read this book !

Even if you didn’t watch either the Republican or the Democratic conventions, you’re probably aware of the fact that NEITHER party is entirely satisfied with the state of the economy. Both parties, of course, offer competing visions on how to fix the problem, but how do we actually know WHICH solution would work better in the long run?

Since none of us have a crystal ball, the answer is very easy. All we have to do is to look at similar situations in our nation’s history, and see how our ancestors solved the problem.

The decade of the 1930’s was the most dramatic upheaval in our nation’s history, and it very nearly brought our country to the state of collapse.

One of the best books that I’ve ever read about the Great Depression is a book titled “Nothing To Fear”, written by Adam Cohen. Although the DEGREE of economic crisis in the 30’s was much more severe than we face today, the PROBLEMS that the Roosevelt administration faced are remarkably similar to the issues that we face today.

Then, as now, the Democrats and the Republicans had very different solutions to the problems at hand.

By clicking on the link below, you can get a sneak preview of the topics covered in the book, but I would STRONGLY recommend reading the book in its entirely yourself before drawing any conclusions.

Nothing To Fear

Rather than giving my viewpoint on the book, I’ll leave you with three surprising facts:

1) Although many people today might consider him to be a socialist, FDR was actually a fiscal conservative. The second bill passed by his administration was the Economy Act of 1933, which slashed the Federal Budget of $3.6 billion by $500,000,000. He also made further cuts in 1937.

2) The vast majority of the ideas of the New Deal actually weren’t Roosevelt’s, but came from a woman that most people aren’t familiar with.

3) The book spends a great deal of time discussing the Gold Standard, which the United States went off of in 1933. Surprisingly, the 2012 Republican platform advocates a RETURN to the Gold Standard.

With the full cooperation of both parties in Congress (a situation that we DON’T have today) it took a full EIGHT YEARS before our GDP returned to its 1929 level. You can draw your own conclusions from there today.

Since Roosevelt was in office for slightly more than 12 years, he’s offered a LOT of compelling advice that can help us to move forward. Attached below are just TWO of his quotations:

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

“We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals; we now know that it is bad economics.“

The slogan for Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign was “Happy Days Are Here Again”. If we can somehow figure out a way to work TOGETHER again for the common good, we’ll eventually get to the point that we can starting singing that old tune again.

The bucket list

When I first moved to Evanston about 7 years ago, I put together a list of 25 goals that I wanted to achieve before I got to the point that I was too old and decrepit to move around without the assistance of a cane or walker.

So far, I’ve accomplished a number of them, and others may well always remain an elusive dream.

One goal that was NOT on my bucket list was mountain climbing, but it IS a goal that I recently achieved.

Mount Elden (in Flagstaff) is one of the five peaks of the greater San Francisco Peaks volcanic system, and they are all remnants of a single massive volcanic peak (nearly 20,000 feet tall) that exploded roughly 500,000 years ago.

The tallest of the San Francisco Peaks is Humphreys Peak. At 12,637 feet, it is the tallest mountain in the state of Arizona.

Just north of the dealership where Kelly and I both work is Mt. Elden. It stretches to a height of 9299 above sea level, which puts it roughly 2300 feet above “ground level” in Flagstaff.

From the air, it looks like this:

From the ground, it looks like this:

On the Saturday before my 65th birthday, Kelly and I (and dog Cody) decided to hike to the top of Mt. Elden. There are a total of 11 hiking trails on the mountain, and we chose to tackle the Elden Lookout Trail, which is the longest and most difficult. From ground level to the peak, it took us close to 3 hours to climb the 2400 feet of elevation. Once we got to the top, though, we had some pretty spectacular views:

Now that I’ve had a year to adjust to living at 7000 feel above sea level, the climb to the top wasn’t actually all that difficult. Surprisingly, the descent down was actually harder than the climb up because we used different leg muscles for the return journey, and my legs DID feel a little sore for a few days afterward.

On her first trip up Elden a few months ago, Kelly met a 70 year old man who climbs to the top 2 or 3 times every week, which proves the fact that you are literally only as old as you feel.

Now that I’ve done it once, it’s inevitable that I’ll have to do it again, Also inevitable is the fact the Kelly and I (and probably Cody) will make it to the top of Humphreys Peak at some point in time. If we DO manage to accomplish that, and if we listen very, very carefully, we’re likely to hear this tune coming out of the earth:

high on a mountain top

What’s on YOUR bucket list?

There's a mouse in the house !

Flagstaff, Arizona sits in the middle of Coconino National Forest, one of six National Forests in Arizona. At just under 2.000,000 acres, it is the largest Ponderosa pine forest in the entire world.

The fragrant and towering trees provide spectacular scenery, and shelter to a wide variety of animals. Apart from coyotes, elk, fox, and bears, the forest also provides shelter to numerous smaller critters.

Like mice.

A few weeks ago, one of those mice scooted across our kitchen floor, quickly scampering from the bottom of the refrigerator to the bottom of the dishwasher. A week later, the same mouse scampered from the bookcase in the living room to the area under the hutch.

Hmmm.

Now what do we do?

Since we simply wanted to move the little guy back outside without harming him, I bought some sticky mouse traps at the local Family Dollar store, and set them out at various locations throughout the house.

Nothing.

I went back to Family Dollar again a week or so ago and bought four more “traditional” mouse traps, and again set them out at various locations inside and outside the house.

A few days later, I was reading the morning newspapers on my computer when I heard a shriek from the kitchen. The trap that I had set in the pantry had done its job, and a long tail was protruding out from under the wire rack we use for storing various food items.

The broom and dustpan made the intruder disappear, but the incident got me thinking.

Who was the first person to invent the mousetrap?

Admittedly, it’s not the kind of question that’s going to come up at cocktail parties, but if you REALLY want to know the answer, I’ll tell you.

William C Hooker, of Abingdon, Illinois, received the first patent for a mousetrap in 1894. Since that time, patents have been issued for variations of the original design, including a recent version that uses electricity.

Although the mice that are caught in traps are usually discarded into the trash, you may be interested to know many societies throughout the world use them as FOOD, and have since at least since the time of Ancient Rome. In addition to mice, their larger cousins (rats) are also consumed on a fairly regular basis. In fact, rats comprise over 50% of the locally produced “meat” in West Africa.

Oh rats!

Although rats can vary in size, the largest one that I’ve ever seen was found on 16th Street in Chicago.

If you’re feeling brave, you may want to try some of the recipes listed below:

Mice in cream (Souris a la crème)

Contrary to what you might think, there aren’t any rats in ratatouille, unless you’re talking about the delightful movie that Disney and Pixar Animated Studios released in 2007.

Ratatouille originally came from a couple of areas in southern France, and normally consists of a variety of vegetables cooked together. Because the dish is low in fat and calories, but high in nutrients, it is popular with dieters.

I’ve prepared the recipe posted below more than once, and found it to be very satisfying.

all recipes.com

Bon appetit.

Incidentally, since it’s always good to close with a tune, I’ll leave you with one that you are very familiar with.

Three blind mice

Impeach Wayne LaPierre !!

I’m a big fan of the National Rifle Association.

Seriously, I am.

To be totally accurate, though, I’d have to admit that I’m a big fan of what the NRA USED to be.

The National Rifle Association has a long and storied history. The organization was originally founded in 1871 by a Union General named Ambrose Burnside. During the Civil War, he discovered that the Union Army needed roughly 1000 shots for every Confederate solider hit. In his own words, he doubted that the soldiers under his command “could hit the broad side of a barn”.

Early on, the NRA provided firearms safety programs, and for many years, the NRA governed and advanced shooting sports in the United States. The NRA also issues recognition credentials to individuals who are trained by the Association to be instructors.

Unfortunately, the NRA first started to “come off the rails” in 1980, due to the actions of then-President Jimmy Carter. Although well-intentioned, President Carter appointed Abner Mikva, a strong proponent of gun control, to a Federal judgeship. In addition, Carter also openly supported the Alaska Lands Bill, which closed off 40,000,000 acres of Alaska to hunting. That’s roughly 10% of the total land area of Alaska, and it’s also roughly the same area as the State of Kentucky.

In response to Carter’s actions, the NRA (for the first time in its history) endorsed a political candidate, Three days before the 1980 election the NRA endorsed Ronald Reagan (who had received the California Rifle and Pistol Association’s Outstanding Public Service) over Carter. Although the NRA probably didn’t have a huge influence on this election, the fact remains that the main character in “Bedtime for Bonzo” carried 44 states, and the incumbent President only carried 6, plus the District of Columbia.

Since 1980, the organization has become more politically active. Its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, is now considered to be the most powerful lobbying organization in the United States. The chief lobbyist for the NRA is Chris Cox, who has held his position since 2002.

Over time, the NRA has become increasingly powerful politically. In 1994, the organization claimed to have defeated 19 of the 24 members of its ”hit list”.

In 2004, the NRA lobbied (successfully) against the renewal of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994, which ultimately made it possible for deranged individuals like Jared Lee Loughner and James Eagan Holmes to obtain AR-15 rifles and high capacity ammo clips.

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, the NRA spent $10,000,000 trying to prevent Barack Obama from being elected.

In 2011, the organization refused an offer to discuss gun control with President Obama.

In addition to being more powerful politically, the organization has also become increasingly radical. Although 8 U.S. Presidents have been NRA members, both Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush resigned their membership because of their disgust with the direction the organization was taking.

At the NRA national convention in St. Louis this year, it was apparent that Wayne LaPierre had simply “lost his marbles”. A mere three days after the Colorado tragedy, he proved his mental instability again in his latest fundraising letter to NRA members.

Radio host Rush Limbaugh has gone even further, stating that Operation Fast and Furious was a plot by the government to create mayhem so that the government could take away everyone’s guns. In view of the fact that there are 300,000,000 firearms (rifles, handguns, and shotguns) registered with the ATF in this country, as well as 240,000 machine guns, it would be statistically impossible to confiscate all of them, but there ARE people who are going to believe Mr. Limbaugh.

Most despicable of all, though, is the attitude held by a few extremists that the theater shootings in Colorado were actually a government plot to give Barack Obama cover so that he could sign the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty.

In case you’re wondering, the government was also responsible for the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the shootings at Virginia Tech, Jared Lee Loughner, and Jim (“here, have some Kool-aid” ) Jones.



The NRA is governed by a large (usually 76 members) board of directors. A few of those directors are owners of companies that manufacture firearms and ammunition. When Charlton Heston was the President of the organization, he became the “official voice” of the NRA. Since that time, though, Wayne LaPierre (who has been the Chief Executive officer since 1991) has taken over the role of being the chief spokesman for the organization, even though the organization DOES have a President, the little-known David Keene.

As Chief Executive Officer, Wayne LaPierre receives an annual salary of $970,000, which is pretty good money for a man who runs an organization that is officially a non-profit. However, in comparison to the $2,6 million paid to Zarin Mehta (chief executive of the New York Philharmonic, which is officially a non-profit organization) it seems a little, well, puny.

In spite that lofty salary, though, the NRA is in no danger of growing broke. In 2012, the NRA had an income of $227.8 million. Slightly under half of that income ($100.5 million) came from membership dues. The balance came from fundraising, sales, advertising and royalties. More than 50 firearms related companies have donated $14.8 million to the organization since 2005, when the NRA created its “Ring of Freedom” in order to solicit donations from companies, foundations, and individuals (like David and Charles Koch).

In addition to helping to elect officials that were friendly to its cause, the NRA has also had a hand in getting increasingly more lenient laws written by its legislative partner, the American Legislative Exchange Council.

In Arizona, the result of that partnership meant that as of 2010, gun owners were no longer required to have training or permits in order to carry concealed weapons. As a result, it is now easier in the Grand Canyon state to get permission to carry a concealed weapon than it is to obtain a drivers license.

Florida was the first state to pass a “stand your ground” law, and other states have followed. One result of Florida’s law is that both Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman are now internationally known, and the incident hasn’t done anything to help bring opposing sides of the argument together. In fact, Mark O’Mara (Zimmerman’s defense lawyer) is scheduled to speak at a Gun Rights conference in Orlando (home of Disney World) in September of this year.

If you'd like to show respect for both Trayvon Martin AND George Zimmerman, you can buy a hooded concealed weapon sweatshirt directly from the NRA for only $59.95.

In May of this year, the Tampa City Council voted to ban air rifles, air pistols, paintball rifles, blasting caps, switch blades, hatchets, axes, slingshots, black jacks, metal knuckles, nunchakus, mace, iron buckles, ax handles, chains, crowbars, hammers, shovels, or any club or bludgeon from the area around the Republican National Convention. They also wanted to ban REAL guns, but state law would have imposed a $500,000 fine if they tried to do so. In addition, council members can be fined $5000 each, and removed from office.

As a result, if you feel the need to bring your AR-15 to the convention for personal protection, it’s perfectly legal.

I’ve never owned a gun, nor have I ever belonged to the NRA, but I have no problem with anyone using guns for hunting, sport shooting, or protection inside their own home.

As a result, I feel that the ONLY place that guns should be allowed are (1) in your home (2) at a shooting range (3) hunting in designated areas or (4) being transported to those places.

In view of the fact that FORTY NINE states have concealed weapon laws that permit you to carry a gun to a lot more places than that, my vision of the role of guns in our society isn’t likely to happen any time soon.

The only state that does NOT have a concealed weapons law is Illinois, but that fact hasn’t diminished the number of shootings in Chicago, which seem to occur on almost a daily basis.

The vast majority of NRA members favor reasonable gun control laws, which leads to an obvious conclusion - the current leadership has to go.

Just as the leadership of the Republican Part has been taken hostage by a handful of extremists, the once noble NRA is now under the control of a small number of people who need to get put out to pasture.

There are 2 ways to do that:

(1) the current membership of the NRA needs to take some type of action to rid their organization of Wayne LaPierre and others like him and

(2) all of us that vote can make sure that NONE of the candidates supported by the NRA get elected to office.

(editors note: as evidence that the tide is turning, the NRA spent nearly $11 million in the November general election - and got less than a 1 percent recent on its investment)

If we can do those things, we’ll give Wayne LaPierre exactly what he needs.

Both barrels.

Good night, and good luck.

“Witch trials in America” isn’t exactly what you’d call a hot topic these days.

If pressed about the topic, most folks would likely mention the Salem witch trials, which took place in Massachusetts between February of 1692 and May of 1693. The number of people affected by the trials was actually pretty small - only about 150 people were arrested, and only 19 were actually executed.

In spite of the fact that they seem like a mere blip in our history, the witch trials of long ago have had a very significant effect on our country. For starters, they reinforced the importance of separation of church and state to our Founding Fathers. They also provide a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, lapses in due process, and governmental intrusion on individual liberties.

Believe it or not, “witch hunts” in America didn’t end in 1693, but they’ve continued under other names since that time.

Richard Nixon had his “enemies list” in the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s, which functioned as a witch hunt, but the most prominent example of “witch hunts” during my lifetime center around the man pictured below:

“The junior senator from Wisconsin” was first elected to his position in 1946. After three largely undistinguished years in the Senate, he suddenly rose to national fame in 1950, when he asserted that he had a list of members of the Communist Party who were employed in the State Department . His charges of Communist infiltration (all of which were unfounded) eventually spread to the administration of Harry Truman, Voice of America, and the United States Army.

Due to his actions, careers were destroyed, and lives lost, but he met his match when he tangled with the man pictured below:

Edward R. Murrow’s broadcast of “See it now”, on March 9, 1954 sealed McCarthy’s doom, and McCarthy’s rebuttal on the same program, on April 6, 1954, only made matters worse. The Army-McCarthy hearings started on April 22, and added further fuel to the fire. Finally, on December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to condemn the actions of Senator McCarthy.

Exactly one month before the vote of condemnation, the Gallup Poll found that his approval rating was 35%, significantly higher than the current approval rating of Congress, which is 17%.

Although he continued to serve in the Senate for another 2 and a half years, he was largely ignored by his fellow senators, and died of complications related to alcoholism on May 2, 1957.

The most recent victim of a witch hunt is the man pictured below:

Being the Attorney General of the United States is a position that is fraught with peril. Most of Eric Holder’s predecessors have come under fire for a variety of “misdeeds’” , which usually didn’t turn out to be fatal to their position.

In Mr. Holder’s case, he has become a recurring target for conservative anger due to (1) his investigation into Bush-era torture allegations, (2) using the civilian court system for terrorism cases (3) refusing to defend a law banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage and (4) challenging (successfully) Arizona’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. However, THE most important reason for their anger is the Justice Department’s role in invoking civil rights laws to block voter ID measures.

Prior to 1965, laws that were designed to suppress voter registration were called “Jim Crow laws” , and they were deemed illegal by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Unfortunately, the Jim Crow laws have come back to life again:

Poor people and minorities aren't the only groups that are being targeted by the new laws. In 2008, college students voted for Barack Obama by a 2 to 1 margin over John McCain. To quote Heather Smith, head of Rock the Vote:

"You think your vote doesn't matter? Then why are they trying so hard to take it away from you?".

The House oversight committee, chaired by Representative Darrell Issa of California,, seized on an operation known as Fast and Furious as s a tool to discredit Mr. Holder, and voted to hold him in contempt on June 21, even though the Department of Justice had already turned over 7200 documents related to “Fast and Furious” to the committee.

The day before, Chairman Issa admitted that his investigation had uncovered no evidence, and now had no strong suspicion, that Mr. Holder had known about, or authorized, the Fast and Furious operation.

Issa’s committee has demanded EVEN MORE documents, and the executive branch finally decided that “enough was enough”. President Obama has invoked executive privilege for any documents produced after February 4, 2011.

Significantly, FOX News was the only cable network to carry the hearings live for an extended period of time.

Operation "Fast and Furious"actually started under the Bush administration. In its early stages, it was known as Operation Wide Receiver, and one of its chief coordinators was a man named William Newell, who was the ATF agent in charge of Phoenix.

Operation Wide Receiver was shut down in October of 2007.

Almost exactly two years later, the operation was resurrected again, this time as “Operation Fast and Furious”. The man responsible for the new program was William Newell.

The same William Newell.

Eric Holder’s office first became aware of the operation in July of 2010, and on November 8, 2010, he testified in a Congressional hearing that the operations was “flawed in its concept and flawed in its execution”.

After Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed on December 12. 2010, the ATF bureau decided that the program no longer made sense, and it was shut down on January 25, 2011.

If you’re a regular listener of the Rush Limbaugh show, of course, you’ll recognize that the whole purpose of the program was to create hayhem, which would allow the Obama administration to take away everybody’s guns. A view, incidentally, that is also shared by Darrell Issa and Wayne LaPierre.

If you're a regular listener of Rush, you're also likely to believe the theory that the recent theater shooting in Colorado was a plot by the government to give President Obama the cover that he needs in order to sign the U.N.Arms Trade Treaty.

If you have any doubts at all about the fact that the Executive VP and CEO of the NRA is a raving lunatic, read (or listen to) his speech at the NRA convention in St. Louis earlier this year:

are you nuts?

Incidentally, the idea that the Democrats are out to "create mayhem" isn't a new idea. In 2000, LaPierre said President Bill Clinton tolerated a certain amount of violence and killing in order to strengthen the case for gun control and to score points for his party.Clinton White House spokesman Joe Lockhart called it "really sick rhetoric, and it should be repudiated by anyone who hears it."

Due to Democratic candidate John Kerry's history of authoring and supporting reasonable gun control legislation, LaPierre actively campaigned against the senator in the 2004 Presidential election.

Surprisingly, even the majority of the NRA members don't agree with Mr. LaPierre either, so it's just a matter of time before he gets forced out of his position.

(Incidentally, the folks who don’t want any restrictions on the sale of guns and ammunition are also the same folks who passed voter ID laws in the last two years).

Purely by coincidence (?) Darrell Issa’s committee voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt eight days after the Department of Justice sued the State of Florida for its illegal attempt to purge 182.,000 voters from its polls. The vast majority of those voters, incidentally, were minorities, who are far more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans.

In the last 2 years, 18 states have passed voter ID laws, ostensibly to reduce “voter fraud”, which is virtually non-existent throughout the country. Although the laws may seem like a good idea at first blush, they serve to disenfranchise voters who are minorities, low-income persons, senior citizens, voters with disabilities, and students.

In all, 33 states have passed laws requiring identification for voting. If you think that all those laws are intended to eliminate voter fraud, consider the words of Mike Turzai, the majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives:

Listing the accomplishments of the Republican-controlled legislature, he said “Voter ID - which is going to allow Mitt Rommey to take Pennsylvania - done”.

Surprisingly, progress HAS been made against the more restrictive voting laws. A state court in Wisconsin ruled that Photo ID restrictions were in strict violation of their state Constitution, and court challengers are currently underway in Florida, Texas, and Minnesota.

If election officials were REALLY serious about voter IDs, they would follow the example of Mexico, and issue EVERYONE a biometric ID card.

At the conclusion of Edward R. Murrown’s broadcast on March 9, 1954, he said this to his viewing audience:

“His primary purpose has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation in not proof and that conviction depends on evidence and due process of law.. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason., if we dig deep into our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world., but we cannot defend freedom abroad if we cannot defend it at home. The actions of the junion Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear, he merely exploited it - and rather successfully”.

Some of his words still ring true today.

Eric Holder is being convicted without evidence, and Wayne LaPierre is creating a situation of fear in order to further promote the spread of firearms in a country where we already have far too many.

If you’re still tuning in to FOX News to get the facts about Eric Holder, or Fast and Furious (or pretty much anything else) all I can say to you at this point is this:

“Good night …

and good luck.”

This coffee tastes like @^#* !

Our daughter went to China in February of 2002 to be ( at the age of 22) a college level English teacher, and I switched to the same occupation in December of 2003.

Roughly halfway through the time of Kelly’s arrival and mine, the SARS epidemic hit southern China, which eventually resulted in the deaths of 916 people worldwide.

Ultimately, the cause of the virus was traced to the human consumption of palm civets, one of the many varieties of animals the people in southern China called “wild flavor”.

Palm civets are also known as civet cats, and they popped up again in the news recently, but for a very different reason. As it turns out, the civet cat can be a major factor in reducing the world’s level of greenhouse gasses.

Until very recently, the world’s most expensive coffee was Kopi Luwak, and it can cost as much as $600 per pound in some countries. You can read about THE most expensive coffee at the link below:

if you pay $50 for a cup of coffee, does that make you a Dumbo?

In the shade-grown coffee trees of Indonesia's rainforest, a wild civet cat (also called the luwak) is said to use its long fox-like nose to sniff out only the best-tasting red berries. Coffee connoisseurs say the seeds of these berries, or coffee beans, taste even better after they've been through the luwak's digestive system. Luwak stomach acids and enzymes that work on these beans create a highly prized aromatic, bitterless cup of coffee. Some New Yorkers will pay $30 for it. However, the most enticing reason for encouraging Indonesian farmers to produce coffee from cat scat is because it may be on the menu for reducing the world's levels of greenhouse gases.

Northern Arizona University Ecological Economics Professor Yeon-Su Kim with the School of Forestry said the link is community forests. She said providing communities with incentives to protect rainforests could slow the destruction of these important carbon-storing ecosystems.

Indonesia is the world’s third largest tropical forest country, and it contains half of the world’s tropical peat lands. These wet, deep layers of organic matter have accumulated for thousands of years and hold a lot of carbon. Some go as deep as 11 meters.

According to Professor Kim, Indonesia's peatland holds 132 gigatons of carbon dioxide, a little less than the largest rainforest, the Amazon. As Indonesia's peatland is being destroyed (due to the harvesting of timber) , there is a massive carbon release, so much so, that through the destruction of forests and peatlands, Indonesia has become the third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. It's only behind the United States and China, where greenhouse gas emissions are tied to economic development from vehicles and industry.

Professor Kim is developing a partnership between NAU and the University of Mataram (on the Indonesian island of Lombok) that involves teaching sustainable forestry, biodiversity and ecotourism, along with conducting climate change research. It also includes the exchange of collaborative experiences between organizations such as the Ecological Restoration Institute at NAU, the Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership and Lombok's multi-stakeholder group.

As a result of this partnership, local citizens get paid for protecting forests, and simultaneously collecting shade-grown coffee, cacao, bananas, and kuwak coffee beans.

Somehow, it seems fitting that the most expensive coffee in the world comes from the country that has the most Muslims, who were the group that introduced coffee to the world way back in the 9th century:

Muslims and the dancing goats

When I was in the National Guard in the 1970’s, I used to think that the coffee tasted like, well, you know.

I’ve guess we’ve come a long way, baby.

My wife has blue balls

The earliest clothes dryers were made in England and France in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Known as "ventilators," they were large metal drums with ventilation holes, powered by hand cranks, and used over open fires. Their invention can't be traced to any one person, but perhaps no one would have wanted the credit, since the clothes always smelled of smoke, were often covered with soot and sometimes caught fire.

An American inventor named George Sampsoncame up with a better idea late in the 19th century, and he was granted a patent for his improved version (which used heat from a stove instead of a fire) in June of 1892.

Since hanging clothes outside to dry in the middle of winter is about the LAST thing that any of us would want to do, it’s not surprising that a man in frigid North Dakota, J. Ross Moore, developed an electric clothes dryer, which first went on sale in 1938.

After WWII, clothes dryers started to become more popular, but even by the mid-1950’s, only 10% of American households owned one, in part due to their cost. Adjusted for inflation, the cost of a dryer in 1955 would be around $1600, which would make it a BIG luxury for a lot of people.

One of the problems associated with clothes dryers is a phenomenon known as “static cling”, which causes clothes to stick together.

An early solution to “static cling” were liquid fabric softeners.They were developed by the textile industry in the early 1900’s, and by the late 1950’s, had spread to home use.

One DISADVANTAGE to the use of liquid softeners is that the chemicals that they contain are not compatible with detergents, so they can’t be added to wash loads until all the detergent has been removed during the rinse cycle. As a result, it was often necessary to run up and down stairs to add the liquid softener at the proper time of the washing cycle.

In order to save his wife all those trips up and down stairs, a man named Conrad Gaiser invented a product that he called Tumble Puffs, which were actually the first known dryer sheets. In 1969, he received a patent for his invention, and shortly after that, he sold the rights to Proctor and Gamble, who started marketing the product as Bounce dryer sheets.

Despite the obvious advantages of dryer sheets over liquid softeners, the sales of liquid softeners are currently about $700,000,000 a year, considerably more than the $400,000,000 of dryer sheets.

When I lived in China, I discovered that clothes dryers (due to the amount of energy they use) are a rarity. Virtually every high rise that I saw “in country” had outside balconies, where lines of clothes could be seen flapping in the breeze.

The house where we live in Flagstaff has a fenced-in backyard AND a clothesline - which I use virtually every week for my sheets and towels. I still think that backyard clotheslines are a good idea, as do a number of people who have read the article posted below:

string ‘em up, Harry

Admittedly, it’s a bit tedious to hang up all my socks individually on the clothes line, so the second load of the week generally gets thrown in the dryer . To her credit, my wife is not a fan of the chemicals used in either liquid softeners or dryer sheets, and has discovered another way to prevent static cling.

They’re called dryer balls.

She has two of them, and they’re blue.

The original Dryer Balls were apparently invented by a man named Dean Kruger in 2006. If you’ve never seen them, they look like the picture below:

In addition to the website shown above, dryer balls are readily available to numerous locations., and they DO represent a more environmentally friendly solution than using liquid softeners or dryer sheets.

Because they are made of PVC plastic, they DO make more noise than the alternative solutions, and that ‘s OK. If saving the environment means that it sounds like you have a pair, it’s a small price to pay.