Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 93

Putrefied Skate

From today's Iceland Review:

Skate Served St. Thorlákur's Mass in Summer

A skate "mass" will be celebrated at Gardur on Reykjanes peninsula, southwest Iceland, tomorrow, St. Thorlákur's Mass in summer. Putrefied skate is traditionally eaten on St. Thorlákur's Mass in winter, December 23, and this is a new tradition.

In addition to skate, salt fish and salted fish cheeks will be served and various performances will take place during dinner, which is a charity initiative, Morgunbladid reports.

Glenn Greenwald Is Crabby Today

From his Column in Salon:

That's really the only relevant question: how much longer will Americans sit by passively and watch as a tiny elite become more bloated, more powerful, greedier, more corrupt and more unaccountable -- as the little economic security, privacy and freedom most citizens possess vanish further still? How long can this be sustained, where more and more money is poured into Endless War, a military that almost spends more than the rest of the world combined, where close...

From the Wall Street Journal

Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue. State money for local roads was cut in many places amid budget shortfalls.

In Michigan, at least 38 of the 83 counties have converted some asphalt roads to gravel in recent years. Last year, South Dakota turned at least 100 miles of asphalt road surfaces to gravel...

Storm

A major storm system went through the Twin Cities last night with strong winds, hail, heavy rain, flash floods and tornadoes. Where we are got rain, a lot of lightning and some wind. Not bad. Though it's always a little anxiety-producing when the storm-warning sirens go off.

This morning is gray with more storms predicted. The big event of the day is going out to buy storage boxes to pack our books. We are having the apartment recarpeted, which means moving everything from the living room int...

Astronomy Photo of the Day (from NASA)

Two galaxies are squaring off in Corvus and here are the latest pictures. But when two galaxies collide, the stars that compose them usually do not. That's because galaxies are mostly empty space and, however bright, stars only take up only a small amount of that space. During the slow, hundred million year collision, one galaxy can still rip the other apart gravitationally, and dust and gas common to both galaxies does collide. In this clash of the titans, dark dust pillars mark massive m...

The Spending of the Top 5%

This is from the New York Times:

...The Top 5 percent in income earners — those households earning $210,000 or more — account for about one-third of consumer outlays, including spending on goods and services, interest payments on consumer debt and cash gifts, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Moody's Analytics. That means the purchasing decisions of the rich have an outsize effect on economic data. According to Gallup, spending by upper-income consumers — defined as those...

Writing

I went to the post office and the library yesterday, then read in a coffee shop and took a walk by the river. The day was hot but not humid. In evening I did some work on an old story. I have finally figured out a plot for it.

Today was grocery shopping, which is the high point of every week. I like buying groceries... Good coffee, English marmalade, cheese, free range eggs... I will buy produce tomorrow at the farmers market.

I have four stories almost ready to go out.

Then it's time to get to...

Unemployment by County 2007-2010

The darker colors are higher rates of unemployment. Black, which covers most of the country by the end of this video, is unemployment in excess of 10%.

Minnesota was maroon, purple and black (6% and up) when Patrick and I got laid off in April, 2009. Now it is mostly purple and black (7% and up).

The video is available on You Tube and is by LaToya Egwuekwe.

Sunset

James Galbraith in Common Dreams

James Galbraith on what needs to be done:

We are in the post-financial-crash. We need to do what the U.S. did during the New Deal, and what France, Japan, Korea, and almost every other successful case of post-crash (or postwar) reconstruction did when necessary. That is, we need to create new, policy-focused financial institutions like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to take over the role that the banks and capital markets have abandoned. Thus, as part of the reconstruction of the...