Comments for All In

Comment on The next generation at NCPR: Part 1, Kenya by Skip Neville

Skip Neville — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:09:27 +0000

Hi, Great article. Keep more coming!

Comment on How does your garden grow? by Ellen Rocco

Ellen Rocco — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:48:10 +0000

Hi, Cassandra. Garlic: until recently, I had mixed results storing garlic. I have finally found the perfect storage location: in a mesh bag on a shelf in my cool, slightly damp cellar. I was always afraid to store it there because of dampness, but I have found the moisture is good–keeps the garlic from drying out and shriveling up by mid-winter. I am still using the last couple of dozen heads of last summer’s garlic. I consider this a huge success. I pull garlic, usually late July or very early August, let it lie on the ground for a sunny day, brush off dirt, wipe with damp cloth to get the worst of the remaining dirt off, cut off tops (I do not grow the variety that is easily braided), put in mesh bags and store. Potatoes: We use every potato we grow–my husband could eat spuds 8 times a day. However, we do generally give some to neighbors we know can use them–particularly Amish friends who have large families. I store my potatoes in our pantry, which is located at the top of the cellar stairs. It’s probably a bit warmer than ideal, but if I’m careful about pulling out any flawed spuds, the potatoes keep in bins or large pots–some air, but dark. I rarely grow enough to get us past January or February, though this year I think there may be enough. I am always interested in storage techniques, too. I don’t have a real root cellar anymore, but my neighbor has a wonderful root cellar that keeps root crops, cabbages, onion-family stuff…perfectly. I am envious.

Comment on How does your garden grow? by cassandra

cassandra — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:31:42 +0000

Wow. What an ample garden! You have so much garlic. How do you harden it off? Do you braid it in the fall or just toss it into a sack for storage? And do share how you store your spuds when the time comes. Are you eating them all or donating some to the local food shelf?

Comment on The next generation at NCPR: Part 1, Kenya by Wendy Kraunelis

Wendy Kraunelis — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:07:14 +0000

Hi Conant. Great piece and look forward to more installments. Sincerely, Wendy

Comment on Origins of baseball by Two Cents

Two Cents — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:18:05 +0000

now i’m curious– why ” bass ” ball and not any other fish?

Comment on Lawn mower meets rocket science by Hank

Hank — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:23:27 +0000

It takes me 15 minutes with an electric walk-behind mower – and much of that 15 minutes is spent keeping the cord from ending up under the mower. Most of our small city lot is flower garden.

Comment on Listening Post: Owning it by newt

newt — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:51:45 +0000

I emphatically disagree with the above. While aspects of the replacement of personal ownership by use are worthy of concern, it is, at least in our society, the exact opposite of communism.
- The products, music, books, Zip cars, whatever, are privately, not communally, owned.
-They are distributed through competitive, free markets.
-Information about them flows freely, so consumers can make informed choices.
-Most important, they succeed or fail based on the choices of consumers, not an all-powerful central authority.

These are fundamental aspects of capitalism, not communism.

A huge majority of the public choosing a music delivery system may not be good, but it is not communism.

I can imagine a situation where a monopoly or oligopoly gained such complete control of the market and media that this would no longer the case, and you might have a “communistic” system in place (ironically enabled by capitalism), and certainly symptoms of it abound these days, but this is not yet the case.

Comment on Listening Post: Owning it by T.Q. King

T.Q. King — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 04:09:33 +0000

I have gotten used to the notion of dealing with things that are not things, i.e, are not objects in material form. Online content is a thing only by way of analogy and imagination. As a result, much of the stuff in my life no longer has any “stuffing.” – See more at: http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/allin/2013/06/13/listening-post-owning-it/#respond

Hello? It is the triumph of Communism. It is not yours; it is the state’s. Or at least in this instance, the corporate capitalists’ state.

America fought long and hard against communal ownership. And now? The commissars slid in through the back door, claiming they were “capitalists”. No difference between the old bolshevik rip-off artist and the new American billionaire. None.

Comment on Choo choo chaboogie by Sally Lynch

Sally Lynch — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:01:39 +0000

Two years ago we lived in Trento, northern Italy for 9 months, and did not have a car. My husband took a bus to work, we walked to the market, stores, library, downtown, cafes, train stations, language classes. When we did not walk we took trains and buses everywhere, and even a cable car up the mountain across from our apartment. We took trains into neighboring Austria. A friend had a bike and he was able to put the bike on the Italian trains. I had a tote bag with wheels for groceries, it worked fine, and I carried an umbrella. Twice we took taxis for medical emergencies, that was it for cars.
We did not miss our car at all. Gas is expensive and traffic fearsome in Italy.
Italy is much more compact than the US, but still it would be wonderful to take trains instead of driving.
I was friends with Margaret Regan, a Winthrop native who remembered taking a bus to Watertown, and taking the Norwood train right into Grand Central Station, New York City.

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by Dale Hobson

Dale Hobson — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:13:58 +0000

Pete–I don’t know if anyone is working on it, but many have long fantasizing about it. Something like the “black ice” security programs in the William Gibson cyberpunk science fiction novel “Neuromancer” that burn out the synapses of hackers using brain-computer interfaces. But probably just melting their computer would do. Dale

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by Pete Klein

Pete Klein — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:04:20 +0000

I wonder if some computer geek is working on a real protection program that would destroy the computer of anyone who is trying to hack into another computer or web site. Kind of a “You kick on my door and my door will blow you up” system.

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by Dale Hobson

Dale Hobson — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 13:00:38 +0000

JG–I love the idea of a global threat singling out NCPR’s website for its strategic value, but I have no reason to suppose that’s the case. The NCPR website is not a template used by other public radio stations. It’s architecture is a one-off, clinker-built by Bill Haenel, NCPR’s new media developer.

We also have no way of telling whether this attack was part of any official Chinese hacking effort, or indeed whether it even originated in China. China is one-fifth of the world’s population and probably has about one-fifth of its computers. This could just as easily be a hacker from the US, or Europe, or anywhere, taking advantage of a Chinese computer to launch attacks elsewhere.

That’s what makes hacking such a great topic for speculation. You often don’t really know what you think you know, and you have no practical way of finding out. Kind of maddening, really. Dale Hobson, NCPR

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by Alan

Alan — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:57:03 +0000

Now I think of you as a steadfast guard at the castle gate of a minor medieval regional earldom. After dark. On a Tuesday.

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by Emily-Jane

Emily-Jane — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:46:34 +0000

I agree, yours is a wonderfully poetic and calm response to the bizarrities of cyber war…it seems there is a place for everything in this wonderful world!

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by J G King

J G King — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 21:33:24 +0000

The code or cyber war has been kindled and one can only hope it does not grow to a conflagration. It makes sense that the Chinese would attempt to crack the small but not insignificant NCPR site. The NCPR web presence template has been picked up by a good number of other public radio stations. Find the weakness in the mother and you’ve got a good shot at all the clones. Should the war heat up, simultaneously taking down a bunch of national and local news sources in the emergency broadcast network could be a significant move within a battle.

Comment on Listening Post: Skirmishes in the Code War by Paul Willcott

Paul Willcott — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 20:07:02 +0000

I just can’t get used to the idea of poet and webmaster in one human. But then every Thursday, I observe it again.

Comment on Choo choo chaboogie by Mark, Saranac Lake

Mark, Saranac Lake — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:33:31 +0000

The federal government didn’t put hardly a nickel into the rail system in the 50s and 60s – it was all going into interstates and airports…that was “the future”! Of course, the future brought…well, I don’t need to go into detail as to what interstate and air travel is like today. In the meantime, Europe, Japan and other industrial countries continued to invest in their rail infrastructure…and left the US in the dust.

Just a little over a half a century ago one could take a train from just about any tiny, backwater community to any other tiny, backwater community in the country. In that relatively short period of time since we threw away an extensive, in-place, efficient transportation system. We now have an extensive but terribly inefficient and very expensive transportation system in place. The cost to shift back to rail would be very high and there doesn’t seem to be any interest in large pubic works these days…it would take a bold commitment that doesn’t seem to exist in this country anymore. As long as gas is cheap ($4 a gallon gas is very cheap relative to the rest of the world) there will be no incentive to change to a more efficient system.

Critics of rail point out the cost and subsidies that go into rail but those critics conveniently forget to mention the costs and subsidies for public highways. Yes, gasoline taxes (paid by those that actually use the roads) do cover some of the costs of highways but that isn’t the only source of income for highway maintenance – highways are heavily subsidized. If those that say either let the passenger rail system (Amtrak) pay for itself or shut it down, perhaps they would also agree that we should set up tolls on all of our highways and let that and the gas taxes pay for the roads and go without subsidies.

Freight: A lot of rail freight is coal, which is the single, most moved commodity.

Comment on Choo choo chaboogie by Ellen Rocco

Ellen Rocco — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:53:33 +0000

I had a call from listener Carl Mogerman over in Norfolk. Turns out he’s a lifelong “railroader” (his term) and had a lot to share. Most importantly, he wanted people to know about the book he’s considers the greatest ever written about railroads: “The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate,” by David P. Morgan and photographer Phil Hastings. It’s about a cross-continent train trip undertaken with a steam powered engine during the last days of the steam engine’s use in the train system. Carl pitched the book pretty passionately, so I plan to check it out. Anyone else familiar with this book? Do you agree with Carl?

Comment on Choo choo chaboogie by Pete Klein

Pete Klein — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:34:15 +0000

Best train ride I ever had was from Detroit to Columbus, Ohio, on a Pullman in the early 50′s. It included a connection to Newark, Ohio on an old steam engine.
Longest train rides were from Albany to Chicago and Detroit to Providence, RI.
I love the NYC subways but hate the Metro card. Bring back the tokens.
Also liked the street cars in Detroit back in the 40′s and 50′s.
And of course I owned I Lionel train set.
You know who killed trains and street cars? It was the Detroit automakers. They made trucks and buses. They saw trains as competition and helped with their destruction.

Comment on Choo choo chaboogie by Mike Ludovici

Mike Ludovici — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:30:27 +0000

My son has fond memories of his combination Bicycle/Train trip from San Fransisco back home to upstate New York.