07:57 – The great jazz musician Dave Brubeck has died, one day short of his 92nd birthday. Even those who don’t recognize his name and never listen to jazz will instantly recognize his most famous piece, Take Five, an amazingly complex and subtle piece of music.
I spent some time yesterday filling and capping 30 sets of bottles for chemistry kits. As usual, I saved the malodorous ones for last. As I was about to start filling the 6 M acetic acid bottles, I realized that I didn’t have any 6 M acetic acid made up, and I was fresh out of the glacial acetic acid that I dilute to 6 M. In a case of accidental just-in-time inventory management, as I was pondering what to do next, UPS showed up with some glacial acetic acid. So this weekend we’ll have everything we need to assemble another 15 of each of the chemistry kits.
There was some activity yesterday afternoon at the house diagonally across the street, the one that’s been vacant for a year or more and is now under contract. I talked to the buyers’ agent, who said that a nice young couple was buying the house and that they were scheduled to close on 21 December. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that everything works out for them. We haven’t met them yet, but it’ll be nice to have the place occupied again.
With Saturnalia rapidly approaching, I really need some gift ideas for Barbara. So far, the only ideas I have are a bottle of glacial acetic acid and a stud finder. Well, really only a bottle of glacial acetic acid. When I mentioned the stud finder to Barbara, she stole it as an idea for something she could give me. We’re both pretty hard to buy gifts for.
09:12 – I was just shipping orders we’d gotten yesterday afternoon and overnight. One of those was an SK01 prepared slides set. We prepackage those in USPS Priority Mail small flat-rate boxes. Those are about the size of a VHS tape and cost $5.15 in postage, no matter where in the US they’re going. This one is going to Tennessee, and as I was running the postage label I noticed that I could substitute a USPS PM Regional-Rate Box A for only one cent more in postage. What the heck? So I stuffed the RRBA full of crumpled newspaper padding, added the small FR box, and shipped it off for $5.16.
I’m just finishing up my last pound of Cornell & Diehl pipe tobacco. It’s a clone of Dunhill 965. I’ve been smoking it for maybe 20 years now, ordering five pounds at a time. That lasts me six months or so. When I first ordered the C&D 965, I think I paid something like $8.50 a pound. It’s now up near $50, so I decided to check around to see what else was available. I found another well-established supplier that sells their own 965 clone for about $30 a pound, so I ordered five pounds. Rather than individual pound bags, this supplier ships five pounds in one large bag, so I’ll need to split it up into gallon ziplock bags before I stick it in the freezer.
And my tobacco pouch has died. I bought it more than 25 years ago, when I first started smoking a pipe. The lining went first, years ago. But now the leather itself is actually developing holes, and tobacco is leaking out when I roll it up. I was looking around for a temporary substitute when I realized that we buy ziplock bags by the hundreds at Costco to use in kits. So my new tobacco pouch is a quart ziplock, which so far seems to be working pretty well. I had to laugh the other day when I thought about what the cops would have thought 40 years ago if they’d caught me with this field-expedient tobacco pouch. Of course, back then, with my long hair, slouch hat, and purse, it was easy to mistake me for a long-haired hippie freak, although I wasn’t. Nowadays, I look more like a solid, law-abiding citizen, although I’m not.
11:41 – With regard to “reshoring” of manufacturing, here’s another data point. Apple has announced that, after a hiatus of 20 years, they will again be producing Macs in the US. And they’re by no means alone. Many, many small- and medium-size businesses that formerly had their products produced in China and elsewhere have begun manufacturing in the US again. A combination of many factors is driving this phenomenon. First, China’s cost advantage has largely disappeared with increases in Chinese wages and shipping costs. Second, time-to-market issues are becoming increasingly important, and making products in the US allows much more timely shipment of new and modified products, often weeks and sometimes months. Third, China is notorious for shoddy QC. It’s a cultural thing. If you don’t keep your eye on them every second, they’ll let things slide to see just how much (or little) they can get away with. Fourth, IP issues have always been a concern. Those companies that have their products produced in China often find rip-off versions, often manufactured in the same plants, swamping their own genuine products in the market.
Nor is it just China. US companies are increasingly withdrawing their manufacturing ties with India and Central and South American factories, finding that the lower costs are largely illusory and the drawbacks are very real. I expect that eventually manufacturing of even lower-tech products like furniture and textiles will return to the US. Along with tobacco, furniture and textiles used to be the three pillars of the North Carolina economy. All are gone now, or pale shadows of their former selves. But I think furniture and textiles will be coming back. They won’t employ as many people as they did then, as automation takes its toll on head-count, but over the next ten years or so I expect we’ll see the return of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs to North Carolina. Not to mention the migration of jobs from other states to North Carolina, which is extremely business friendly. That’s assuming that the labor unions don’t prevail on their buddy Obama to make it illegal to move businesses to right-to-work states, as they’re already attempting to do.
12:49 – I just read a headline that belongs in my collection of “Headlines that convey no new information”: “Italian Government on the Brink of Collapse”. Since when, in living memory, has the Italian government not been on the brink of collapse? Certainly not in my lifetime. Italian governments have always made banana republics look stable and long-lasting.
Give this to Barbara,
I sure she could use it a virtual butler. You might new to redo the whole house to get all the functionally, but I sure that is not a problem (grin).
Leo
http://www.bornrich.com/entry/a-customized-virtual-butler-for-your-housework/
The acid could be good. That stuff smells delightful.
“And my tobacco pouch has died. I bought it more than 25 years ago, when I first started smoking a pipe.”
25 years? I’ve seen a picture of you smoking a pipe when you were a toddler.
A baby, actually. But I didn’t have my own pipes and pouch back then.
Wanna know how to get your Product Champion to quit? Schlep them to China twice a month on a long range airplane. My partners wanted me to do that and finally calmed down when I explained that I would spend 40 hours per month on a plane. They still think that it is a good idea.
One factor making all this possible is the increasing availability of cheap relatively clean energy in the form of natural gas in the US due to hydraulic fracturing.
Also to combine recent two recent topics, I predict that some company somewhere will buy the rights to make Twinkies and other former Hostess products. My only question is will they be made overseas or in a right to work state?
What tobacco blend would you recommend for a beginning pipe smoker? I’ve been sampling some cigars lately, but I find myself extraordinarily ignorant of all thinks pipe related. I hate Googling for such info as more often than not the suggestions are driven by whatever the site or the site’s advertisers are trying to sell.
Someone really needs to write a good and thorough “Pipe and Cigar Smoking for the Novice” book. Even if it’s a self-published e-book.
The current rumor is that Grupo Bimbo ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Bimbo ) is going to move the Hostess bakeries to Mexico and take advantage of free XXXX low cost labor with zero NAFTA import duties.
Many beginning pipe smokers smoke flavored blends, and some stick with them. But most novices soon graduate to smoking English tobaccos, so-called because English law considers casings (flavorings) to be adulterants and prohibited them. (Or at least used to; I don’t know if it still does.) So English tobaccos are pure tobacco made up (usually) of several different types of tobacco. Specialty tobaccos like Latakia and Perique are usually used in small percentages to add flavor.
I’d suggest that you smoke only high-quality tobaccos, those sold by tobacconists rather than in drugstores. The latter are truly foul. Most tobacconists offer sampler packs that contain several different blends. I’d suggest you get one or several of these samplers to try out many different blends and then settle on the one or a few that you like. Some people smoke different tobaccos at different times; one in the morning, another in the evening, and so on. I used to smoke Dunhill Early Morning Pipe in the morning, Standard Mixture Medium during the day, and My Mixture 965 in the evening. I finally decided that I really liked 965 best, so I’ve been smoking it pretty much exclusively for the last 15 years.
Would that be a Giant sucking sound? Not that I’m especially interested in Twinkies, what with them being made of styrofoam and filled with sanitized pus.
Please, Bimbo has many US plants. Hell it’s just baked good that cost pennies to make. It’s the transportation that costs.
Yeah, if Bimbo buys the rights to Hostess, they’ll produce them in the US. Bimbo USA already owns:
Arnold/Oroweat – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States.
Bimbo – Producing cakes and bread. Bimbo breads and cakes are found in major United States cities with large Mexican and Mexican-American populations.
Boboli – Producer of ready-made pizza crusts.
Brownberry – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States.
EarthGrains – Producer of loaf bread primarily sold throughout the United States.
Entenmann’s – Pastry baker in the United States.
Francisco – Producer of bread and rolls
Freihofer’s – Producer of bread and cakes most commonly found in upstate New York.
Marinela – Producer of Mexican cookies.
Mrs. Baird’s – A leading bakery primarily present in Texas and surrounding states.
Sara Lee
Stroehmann’s – With Oroweat above, a producer of loaf bread in the United States.
Thomas’ – Producer of English muffins and bagels.
Tía Rosa – Producer of home-style bread, pastry, and tortillas.
testing
OK, it worked that time; I posted a comment here three times and it didn’t appear.
OK, I give up. I tried to post a comment about the bakery situation and included, only thing I can think of that would mess it up, a link. No dice.
OR…
You’re losing your mind.
I once posted a message with two links and it was held for Robert to approve. Single-link messages have all gone through.
Of late I’ve had anywhere from one to three links and they’ve all gone through. Not tonight, not even with one.
And yes, I am losing more of my mind, in addition to what was already lost; just saw a work email which indicates that upper management where I work is tripling our work load and assigning highest priority to a huge chunk of it effective this coming Monday, when all hands better be on board. Two weeks before Xmas, Solstice, whatever. I can see 12- and 16-hour days coming up. God forbid they hire anyone else.
Hey OFD, sounds like you are an IBMer:
http://www.cringely.com/2012/12/05/more-stupid-ibm-tricks-put-customer-data-at-risk/
I assume that Mrs. OFD got laid off by your previous comment? If so, I’m sorry. I tried to help by voting for Romney but 4,000,ooo people chose to vote for O’Bummer instead.
I’m not sure that electing Romney would have helped much immediately but I would feel better about the future. I also recently changed my income tax withholding from married-zero to single-zero in thinking that the taxes may be higher in 2012 also. The wife has had hers at single-zero for a long time as that seems to work the best. I just found out that the Alternative Minimum Tax applies for the 2012 taxes as congress failed to delay it this year. Sounds like a lot of people are going to get a unpleasant surprise in April 2013.
And we have a disabled daughter who we provide all the support for. She turns 26 next May and will roll off our health insurance. I may just let her roll onto the Medicaid rolls instead of moving Heaven and Hell to get her insured.
I see now how natural gas and the frickin’ fracking is going to help us. It is going to cause Foxconn to open plants here, too. And Bimbo owns Arnold Bakeries? Man, I did not know that. Arnold has destroyed the bakery up in Maine that made Canadian Brown bread, and also destroyed Healthnut bread after buying Brownberry bakeries in Michigan. I may have to go into permanent Twinkie withdrawal.
Nope, Foxconn will be opening those plants south of the border in Mexico. There are already many car plants down there with dormitories and cafeterias. Adding iPhone and IPad plants will be no big deal. Just big 2,000,000 ft2 buildings with 15,000 people working in them. No OSHA, no wage laws, no overtime laws, no EPA, no Obamacare, …
Lynn, re: your daughter’s insurance. Depending on what state you live in, she might be able to get coverage via http://www.pcip.gov . She’ll first have to get an official rejection letter from at least one carrier, and it takes some weeks to process all the paperwork, etc.
After the SCOTUS decision this summer I once again re-applied, and was once again told that the major carriers would only insure me if some employer agreed to pay a large part of the bill. But the rep from one company pointed me in the direction of the above web site, and now I’m covered.
I am in the Great State of Texas. We are almost our own nation down here, we have got our own electrical system, insurance companies (health, house, dog, storm), etc. We supply natural gas, oil and gasoline for almost half the nation. And I would not eat the oysters from Galveston Bay. And we have no state income taxes.
My wife is working to get our daughter declared disabled by BCBS. If that happens then we can get a super secret health insurance addon of her to our health insurance. So far, the paperwork is very impressive by it’s non-existence. This does not bode well.
BTW, like I said, I am seriously considering let my daughter roll onto Medicaid. No co-pays, no premiums (I pay $400/month to have her on my insurance), etc. One has to shop harder to find a doctor but the ER cannot turn you away. In fact, I just paid a $300 ER bill for her from last month.
Of course, the wife thinks that I am an idiot.