Archive for January, 2008

Refresh, Refresh

After reading this review, I really want to read Refresh, Refresh by Benjamin Percy. These short stories, especially the title story, literally pull you in to the high desert of central Oregon and drop you off, to feel, process, and face the emotional upheaval of our time, usually through the rich inner life of a […]

underage drinking

I’ve always thought it was silly that our government deems 18 year olds responsible enough to be soldiers, but not responsible enough to drink. Under current law, it’s easy for underage people to get alcohol. A high percentage of the people I know have (or have had) fake IDs that get them into bars and […]

COFECHA and file format problems

I use a program called COFECHA to help crossdate trees. COFECHA uses some old school formats developed for punch-cards. Excel, which I used to make changes to ring widths, does not like these formats. There are lots of programs for changing formats, but it’s all a bit confusing. Many dendrochronology programs produce and use Compact/Precision […]

10 points

If you can name the movie that inspired this prison break: The two had used pin-ups of girls in bikinis to hide the holes through which they broke out. Hint:

drought and australian farmers

The Australian government pays farmers during drought and wants to modify the program to help farmers deal better with climate change. Agriculture Minister Tony Burke says he supports the payments system but wants it to be improved, with farmers given more help to deal with climate change. … “What we want to make sure of […]