“A 65-year-old resident of a Chinese village named Huang Shiguo has been making paper according to old traditional technology for the last 36 years. According to him, for a month he produces about 3,000 sheets of such paper, earning about 9,000 yuan or 1,400 dollars. [Huang] argues that paper made in a traditional way is much more durable, quality and soft compared to the manufactured methods. The master sells its products in the local markets of China.”
At time of posting, 9,000 yuan is equivalent to US $1,355, so each sheet of handmade paper earns him about 45 cents. Not bad, given the cost of living in rural China, but he’s not living in rural China. He’s demonstrating and preserving ancient technology, and selling his expensive product while living in a tourist mecca. Pure undiluted capitalism. Kudos.
“Huang Shiguo, 65, makes paper using ancient methods in his home in Baishui Village, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Huang said he began learning the traditional paper-making craft at 29 and has been dedicated to the ancient craft ever since. Locals in the area have a more than 1,000-year history of paper making as the region is rich in Yangshan Bamboo, a main material needed for the craft. Huang said the typical process involves 72 steps and 55 days to produce paper.”
[Photos and 1st caption (translated from Russian via Google Translate) found here. 2nd caption from here.]
“Ignore him. He’s just a tropical depression.”
“He’s now a tropical storm, and his name is (get this) ‘Harvey.’ Hahahaha!”
“Oooh, Harvey! You’re only a Category 1, Harvey. Piss off or grow a pair.”
“Harvey? Isn’t that the name of an imaginary rabbit? Heh.”
I heard all yer banter, so I ramped it up a notch for fun, then decided to settle down an’ drop another several billion gallons of that wet stuff on ye. Ye still wish to mock me moniker?
But I warned you! I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh no, you knew it all, didn’t you? Oh, it’s just a harmless little bunny, isn’t it? Well, it’s always the same. I always told them, but do they listen to me? Oooh, no…
Ye just mock me name an’ think it’s over. Now this lil’ bunny’s gonna drop another 20 inches on yer fuzzy heads, maybe another 20 after that if you don’t shape up.
—HurricaneTropical StormTropical DepressionStorm System Thunderhead Harvey
[Image found here, and in no way is my intent to make fun of the tragedy. God Bless the people of Texas. The reconstruction is going to take years, if not decades.]
“That was the time I was most frightened, waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a life jacket again.” –Shark hunter Quint [Robert Shaw] in the 1975 film “Jaws.”
Quint was referring to the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis, torpedoed in 1945:
Recently the USS Indianapolis, missing for 72 years, has been found in the Philippine Sea approximately three and a half miles below the surface. Story w/ pics here.
Woody James was 23 at the time of the attack and lived to tell about it. His story of horror is very understated:
“Sunday, the 29th of July was a quiet day. The sea was runnin five or six feet waves, just a beautiful day out. Didn’t do too much, read a book, did a little tinkerin as usual. Had the 8:00 to 12:00 watch and just got off at midnight. A guy relieved me about a quarter to twelve. I went down through the galley and had a cup of coffee. Then went to my compartment and got a blanket off my bed and went back up on deck. I slept under the overhang on the first turret. My battle station was inside it so in case general quarters sounded, I slept underneath it. Just got laid down good, using my shoes for a pillow as usual and the first torpedo hit. I was up and down between the deck and the overhang of the turret like Yankee Doodle Dandy. And, I wondered, ‘what in the hell is goin on?’
I got out of my blanket and started to roll out from underneath the turret and the other torpedo hit. Another Yankee Doodle deal, all over the place. I started to walk forward to see what I could see and what I seen was about sixty-foot of the bow chopped off, completely gone. Within a minute and a half, maybe two minutes at the most the bow is startin to do down. It filled up with water that fast. Everything was open below deck and the water just flooded in and we were still under way, just scoopin water. Complete chaos, total and complete chaos all over the whole ship. Screams like you couldn’t believe and nobody knew what was goin on. The word got passed down, “ABANDON SHIP”! It was maybe five minutes and we were really down in the water so we proceeded to abandon ship.”
On 26 July 2017 the US Senate voted to keep ObamaCare in effect forever.
On Wednesday, 26 July 2017, all 48 Democrats plus 7 Republicans in the Senate voted to destroy the most efficient and successful private healthcare system in the world.
Nice move, idiots.
Every totalitarian government in modern history that nationalized medical care for their constituents did it for reasons having nothing to do with medical care or economics, and everything to do with purging the population that remembers oppression and the obvious causes.
ObamaCare is no different.
Welcome to fascism, folks. They’re gonna shove it down our throats despite majority public opinion to the contrary.
… Scientists suggest that the greater contribution to skyrocketing methane levels has more to do with biological sources of the gas. Methane molecules are made of carbon and hydrogen atoms, and the carbon in biological methane tends to be slightly lighter than the carbon in methane associated with fossil fuels. And over the past decade or so, the proportion of lighter methane in the atmosphere compared to heavier methane has been rising. “I think this perspective is basically right,” said Martin Helmann, of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, in Jena, Germany, in an email. Helmann was not involved in the research.
The authors of the Science paper have some ideas about why biological sources of methane may be increasing. “In the southern hemisphere especially,” Nisbet said, “but also in the northern tropics, a series of really wet years has caused wetlands to expand”—and vegetation decomposing in swamps and shallow lakes is a well known source of natural methane emissions. Another is cows, which generate methane as they digest their food, then belch it out into the air.
These explanations, however, aren’t at all definitive — another key point Nisbet and his co-authors make in the Science paper. “The measurements we make in the air are direct,” he said. “Estimates of where methane is coming from, by contrast, is much less reliable. You estimate the contributions from gas leaks, count up the cows, estimate the emissions from wetlands. There’s obviously going to be a lot of error.”
And in fact, there is: the estimates of how much methane should be going into the atmosphere are greater than what actually ends up there. Tracking methane emissions more accurately is crucial, said the scientists, and not just as an academic exercise.
“If we want to control greenhouse-gas emissions,” Nisbet said, “it’s obviously important to know where the emissions are coming from.”
Global vegetation decomposition, wetlands, the oceans, rice paddys, rain forests, patio hibachis, your neighbor’s annoying little yapping kikmi dog and Humpback whales are all part of the mix.
Q: So, what happens if atmospheric methane triples?
A: Click on the image of the Flaming Cow Fart to find out.
[Commentary excerpt found here; top image found in here; snarky related posts here.]
