Found a bag of old photos in a box of my father’s stuff.  Looks like my grandmother’s old photos.  Some go back to the 1930s.  Digitized them with my phone on a small tripod.  Did over 200 in a few minutes.  Here are some of the interesting ones.

Had a wooden shelf in our shower.  It was made out of some sort of exotic wood and did last a decade or more.  Decided to replace it when it started to fall apart.  After much searching for proper wood for this sort of environment (is there any such thing?) I decided to go with a cedar 2×4 I had in my shed and some fiberglass resin.  Used this stuff once when I was in high school to make a darkroom trough and it is pretty tough (and looks good too).  Will send an update when I get it bolted to the shower wall.

From the Santa Fe Institute.

Why Are There Poor People? Sam Bowles And The Poverty Dilemma

From the BBC.  Tourism is the world’s largest industry and functions as an export.  I am more surprised that France is the world’s #1 tourist destination.

Spain to replace US as second most popular tourism spot

Early Weekend reading:

CORMAC MCCARTHY’S BLOOD MERIDIAN WAS ALMOST A PLAIN OLD WESTERN

THE SNEAKY LITERARY INFLUENCES BEHIND A MODERN AMERICAN CLASSIC

Just ran across this today.  Never heard of it before.   From the Wiki page:

Poverty Point comprises several earthworks and mounds, built between 1650 and 700 BCduring the Archaic period in North America, by a group of Native Americans of the Poverty Point culture. The culture extended 100 miles (160 km) across the Mississippi Delta. The original purposes of Poverty Point have not been determined by archaeologists, although they have proposed various possibilities, including that it was a settlement, a trading center, and/or a ceremonial religious complex.

The 910-acre (1.42 sq mi; 3.68 km²) site, which has been described as “the largest and most complex Late Archaic earthwork occupation and ceremonial site yet found in North America“^[4] is a registered National Monument. The monument was brought to the attention of archaeologists in the early 20th century, when it was given the name of Poverty Point after a nearby plantation.

I have always like Martin Sosnoff’s articles in Forbes.  He is usually a stock picker with lots of old fashioned lingo and stories, but this time he goes into facts and figures on the American poor and middle class over time, mostly from “A Century of Wealth in America” by Edwin R. Wolff.

Wealth inequality is getting lots of attention lately, but I think America is winding down its post-war boom (and Boomers).  It remains to be seen what economic and political direction the country will take. I always found it funny that “America” is really just a part of North America, sandwiched between Mexico and Canada.  In many ways we split the difference.

The American Dream Is History

From Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times:

Why 2017 Was the Best Year in Human History

“Every day, the number of people around the world living in extreme poverty (less than about $2 a day) goes down by 217,000, according to calculations by Max Roser, an Oxford University economist who runs a website called Our World in Data. Every day, 325,000 more people gain access to electricity. And 300,000 more gain access to clean drinking water.