I haven’t been very engaged in the GNRs lately. My excuse is last spring my two children bought a century-old house in the WVU student ghettto and I have been helping them renovate it. It had first been owned by several generations of an immigrant Italian family. In the 1980s it was sold to a development company who made it into a student rental. Forty years of that predictably turned it into a dump.
The summer was devoted to ripping out the renovations to see what was underneath. The original house was well constructed but the plaster under the cheap panelling needed to go. Not surprisingly, there was no insulation in the walls.
The plumbing is quite good- both the kitchen and bath were renovated by someone who did a great job. I had been afraid we would have to deal with cast iron drains but it is plastic down to the basement floor. When I worked in my father’s hardware store we used to sell oakum and lead ingot to seal cast iron drains. They would pound the oakum (old hemp rope saturated with oil) into the joints and then pour molten lead over it.
The wiring is insane- the original was knob and tube and parts of it have been upgraded several times over the decades (not all the people who did the upgrading knew what the hell they were doing). In addition to electricity there are gas pipes in the ceiling (now disconnected) for lights. Apparently that was common- the electrical grid was not reliable and people didn’t entirely trust the new-fangled technology. I am amused that they thought it necessary to put the wires in ceramic tubes where they run through the wooden studs and beams. Wood is an excellent insulator.
For the last few weeks we have been taking down the lath and plaster on the walls and ceiling in the parlor and entryway. It is a filthy job because coal soot filtered into the cavities and comes out in big clouds. We finally finished yesterday. We have started putting up insulation, removing the old wiring, and replacing it with a complete redo. It is starting to look like it will be a nice place to live.
With that introduction let’s get to some good news. (I took this pledge. I encourage others to do so.)
Good Economic Revisionism News
Tyler Cowen discusses why most economists (including him) were wrong about the effects of the Fed’s drastic interest rate hikes. Personally, I admit to being gobsmacked by the economy of the past two years. I hit the job market in 1981 just as Paul Volcker did the same thing to crush the 1970s inflation. That precipitated a recession and biotech jobs vanished overnight. My friends who had been looking six months earlier had all had multiple offers but I got a string of rejections. I saw no reason to think that the current Fed’s actions would be any different.
How Were So Many Economists So Wrong About the Recession?
Last year at this time, 85% of economists in one poll predicted a recession this year — and that was an optimistic take compared to the 100% probability of a recession forecast two months earlier. Meanwhile US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, drawing upon the work of his highly able staff, expressed fear in March that bringing down the rate of inflation would cost millions of American jobs.
And yet none of this has happened. Both inflation and unemployment are headed in the right direction, and most economists expect the US to avoid a recession in 2024. Economists have yet to figure out why things went so well, but it is already clear that a reckoning is due.
Good Science News
Rehydrating Nevada’s riparian areas, one beaver at a time
But over the past few decades, beavers have bounced back as most public and private land managers now realize the rodents are more than a source of fur and oil — they are a critical component to healthy riparian ecosystems. They can reduce erosion, raise the water table, improve water quality and expand floodplains and wetlands — many of the same goals of riparian restoration projects.
Many Nevada ranchers are realizing that if they want healthy waterways on their grazing allotments, they need to also want the large rodents – or at least a simulation of them — on their property.
This realization has given beavers a new reputation in agricultural areas across the West. In a generation, the rodents have gone from being perceived as pesky nuisances to critical landscape components.
The following is from a few weeks ago but is worth revisiting. In the words of Commander Peter Quincy Taggart: “Never give up! Never surrender!”
Astronauts Just Found a Tomato That Was Missing for 8 Months in Space
In October, Rubio told NASA that he harvested "the first tomato in space" and put it in a Ziploc bag. But when one of his fellow astronauts did an event with some schoolkids, he decided to take it from its storage place to show it off. "I thought it'd be kind of cool to show the kids," he said. "Then, I was pretty confident that I Velcroed it where I was supposed to Velcro it, and then I came back, and it was gone."
Good Canine News
Buster and Scamp want all dogs to have a good forever home.
Pennsylvania Animal Shelter Celebrates Having No Dogs For First Time In 47 Years
“This is the first time in 47 YEARS that the Adams County SPCA is empty let alone at Christmas time, it is a true miracle!”
“This year we have adopted out 598 animals and reunited 125 strays with their owners!” the shelter, located in Gettysburg, wrote on Facebook. “WOW! It has been a busy year!”
Good Art Criticism News
I highly recommend this deep dive into the significance of the lights outside of one of Bob Dylan’s many homes. Where others may have seen a half-assed attempt at holiday cheer she sees the profound statements that can be made with a single string of lights.
Dylan's Christmas Lights: A Scholarly Treatise
The 90’s found me living in Malibu, California where I learned that he had a house in my neighborhood. I have been told he is a compulsive home buyer and owns houses all over the country. I have never seen the one that is about a mile from my house because it is hidden behind a number of gates and hedges but my husband and I regularly go past there when we take a walk through the neighborhood that we refer to as “A Full Bob.”
Starting in December 2008 we noticed that the hedges in front of his property were decorated with a string of Christmas lights. We stopped to look at them because the average version of a decorated yard in my neighborhood looks more or less like an outdoor courtyard at a four star hotel…
I was moved to photograph it because, much the way he forged his own path in music, he was exhibiting an independence of style in his Christmas decorating. His approach, conjuring images of a string of loose lights having been casually tossed into the hedge by someone in a hurry, seemed to be making a faux-naïve statement, not unlike a Matisse or a Chagall. Because I grew up in a world where nothing that Mr. Dylan ever did was too insignificant not to be worthy of serious intellectual scrutiny, I immediately understood that this was no ordinary, haphazardly arranged, string of colored lights. It had to contain a deeper meaning.
Giving Back
Yesterday arhpdx gave a list of the charities she is going to donate to before the end of the year. Here is my donation list:
RIP Medical Debt: Cancels medical debt for pennies on the dollar.
NORML: Cannabis criminalization was and still is rooted in racism. The stuff has many medical uses and can be fun.
Drug Policy Alliance: Cannabis is just the most egregious case. The war on drugs should be ended.
ACLU: The greatest protector of our rights.
Women’s Health Center of West Virginia: They were the last provider of abortions in WV. Last year they opened a clinic right across the border in Maryland to help fill the void.
Planned Parenthood: They are still providing reproductive care but they are also ramping up their political efforts.
Aid Access: Abortion providers (in states that have adopted laws to protect them against legal action from the states where abortion has been banned) provide tele-health consultations. The pills are then mailed to the patients.
Daily Kos
Working Families Party
Wikipedia
My alma maters, Caltech and UCSD. The impact my education has had on my life is incalculable.