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The photo this time is foggy because of the air being so moisture laden. It is an effect, not an artifact.
This from Robert Higgs:I am writing this post on Sunday evening, and I have just finished my supper. For dessert, I had a fresh nectarine with vanilla ice cream. It was heavenly.
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The one I consumed this evening came close to perfection: It had just recently ripened fully and had gorgeous colors, inside and outside; its flesh was firm, yet juicy, very sweet, but with enough fruity tanginess that its taste still lingers lovingly on my tongue.
As I enjoyed this heaven-sent delight, I thought to myself: This fruit was grown in Chile. Here I sit, in my home in southeast Louisiana, in a rural area, fifty miles from the nearest big city. Yet I am enjoying the fruit (literally in this case) of someone's labors in a land many thousands of miles away. It's not the first time I've done so, either, and I fully expect to repeat this experience many times in the future, should fortune decree that my life continue. Indeed, this kind of consumption is a daily occurrence for me, as it is for nearly everyone else in this country.
Yet, how often do we pause to reflect on the near-miraculousness of this manner of living? Fresh fruits delivered in the middle of winter even to remote places all over this country! Who arranges this vast and complex distribution so successfully? How is it even possible to organize all the people who had to cooperate peacefully in order to make my splendid dessert possible. I have no idea who planted the fruit trees, tended them for years until they matured, picked the fruit, packaged and transported it through successive stages until it was ultimately placed on display in the grocery store I patronize. Of course, every one of these unknown people had to have the cooperation, directly or indirectly, of thousands of others, who manufactured the equipment and materials they used, produced the necessary fuels and lubricants, kept the accounts, insured the properties, arranged the payments, and so on and on and on.
http://antidismal.blogspot.com/2009/03/daily-miracles-of-market.html
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We like this area, always have.
From the Economist magazine comes the graph below showing how the sales of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" coincide with financial news.
The Economist explainThe first jump, in September 2007, followed dramatic interest-rate cuts by central banks, and the Bank of England's bail-out of Northern Rock, a troubled mortgage lender. The October 2007 rise happened two days after the Bush Administration announced an initiative to coax banks to assist subprime borrowers. A year later, sales of the book rose after America's Treasury said that it would use a big chunk of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Programme to buy stakes in nine large banks. Debate over Mr Obama's stimulus plan in January gave the book another lift. And sales leapt once again when the stimulus plan passed and Mr Obama announced a new mortgage-modification plan.
Their interpretation of thisWhenever governments intervene in the market, in short, readers rush to buy Rand's book. Why? The reason is explained by the name of a recently formed group on Facebook, the world's biggest social-networking site: "Read the news today? It's like 'Atlas Shrugged' is happening in real life". The group, and an expanding chorus of fretful bloggers, reckon that life is imitating art.
http://antidismal.blogspot.com/2009/03/atlas-shugged-index.html
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For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com
We were looking in the thrift shops- themselves a far cry from secondhand stores, more boutiques than Goodwill. It was 4:50. As we entered the last shop remaining open, the proprietess told us "Sorry, I am closing.". We thought it odd to close in a customer's face 10 minutes before closing, but maybe business is good here?
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