Let’s TRY THE TRICKLE DOWN APPROACH
The media is making noise again about how the mini house
will save the day and eliminate the homeless folks. They even went so far as to
show a rendering of several such tiny house on a large lot on a nice
flat area. Someone doesn't understand the process of any kind of housing as the
site cost and lot can be even more than the cost of the little house. Think about it, a tiny house for one person
will pay the same amount for the sewer hook-ups and rates as a large family in
a large house. Not my idea).This may sound like some Socialistic concept but
let’s face facts. In a Communist regime, the government would own it. ; What
would you call our Social Security system? Our Medicare System? Susidized housing? Food Stamps?, Schools? Etc. The same thing goes for the rest of the
utilities to a lesser degree (Power, Water, Gas, Cable, etc.). Someone better
add in the costs of the streets, storm drains, sidewalks,water & sewer.
etc. as you don't think the authorities will be able to just put in dirt roads
do you? How about the cost of the actual land? Someone owns it at first , don’t
they?
Maybe we should
approach the problem from a different direction, like from the earning
capacity of an individual. Let’s see
how far $15 an hour gets us.
$15x 10days = 150 a day x
6 days = 900 A WEEK.
X 4= 3600 a month,
X 12= $43,200 A YEAR.
That would be OK if no
taxes were taken out & no Health ins. and Day care was free. Consider 1/3rd of that($1200/Month) for rent .
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| Maya Codex |
BOOK REVIEW
MAYA by Diego de Landa
Account of the Affairs of Yucatan in the mid-1500’s. (Warning; This padre is a poor writer and is very
boring! But it’s all pretty interesting.)
Translation
by A. R. Pagden in 1976
Diego de Landa, The Catholic missionary who served in
Yucatan in the 1500’s was largely responsible for the destruction of most of
the breakable or flammable Maya artifacts, but at the same time, he wrote about
the culture of the original Mexicans, which gives us a are view of the
every day life of the people and their
practices while at the same time he describes the terrible treatment by the
Spaniards trying to overlay their religion on a culture they considered
inferior to theirs. You can actually get
a grasp of their Codex, kind of a herrogliphics like Egyptian , but very
different.
Toshiro MafuniMYAMOTO MUSASHI by Euji
Yoshifawa
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| Toshiro Mafuni |
The story of
Japans’ greatest swordsman, he was renown for his prowess probably due the
movie , (1956) starring Toshiro Mafune, the perfect fit for such an
enigma. To while away his time while in
prison for three yrears, Mushashi studued painitng and poetry to balance his
brutal strength This is a novel in the
best tradition of Japanese story telling. Subtle and imaginative, it is teeming
with memorable characters,, many of them historical. It transmit a clear
picture of the way of the Samuari, interweaving themes of unrequited love,
misguided revenge, and absolute dedication to the ‘way of the Samurai,’ it
depicts a world We westerners know only vaguely, full of gusto and humor, it
has an epic quality and universal appeal.
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ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCOO NEST
by Ken Kesey
Americans (USA) don’t
generally like reading stories about the Hero who dies or is killed at the end
, bur Kesey is not of that genre. You’ve probably all seen the move, featuring
Nicholson and the awsome ‘Nurse Ratched’ but there is so much more going on in
everyones head (especially ‘Chief’s ,the supposedly deaf & dumb Indian with
the mop & bucket) . Kesey’s description of MacMurty is writing at it’s best. Kesey had gained a
lot of insight due to his having worked in a nut-house in Oregon, and it shows.
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| Hangmans' Bolo |
FROM TOM WOLF
“I went to see the the Beatles….And I heard 20,0000 girls screaming
together…. And I couldn’t hear what they were screaming, either…. But you don’t
have to …They’re screaming Me ! Me ! Me !... I’m Me !... And that’s why wars get
fought….”
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While in the medieval
town of Delft in the Netherlands, we wondered who the statue was in front of
the huge church (The ‘New’ church was built in the 13th century.)
The name of Hugo Grotius didn’t mean much to us until we asked a lawyer friend
when we returned to the US. It seems he was an international figure even in the
16th century as Holland was always at war with someone and he wrote
volumes regarding International High Seas Navigation and use. Grotius notion of
the freedom of the seas would persist until mid-20th century, and
continues to be applied even to this day for much of the high seas, though the
application of the concept and the scope of it’s reach is changing. He was jailed for his writings on Church
theory but escaped in a
trunk to France where he was welcomed. He is probably more famous for his trunk
escape than his writings.
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| Modular moveable plant |
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| Plant all packed |
FARM HOUSING
since everyone is caught
up talking about mini-housing, modular-housing and farm housing I
Thought I'd unwrap a thirty year old study of housing farm
workers that I did for a corporation that was not able to get the concept off
the drawing boards. By that time, I had designed and initiated at least two
modular plants that actually constructed housing units.
The concept was that a
modular plant capable of building a minimum of 25 units cold be designed to be
portable on just a few trucks and set up near an area that needed farm housing,
for permanent homes. The units would be of the same design and would be financed
by large growers. And not just seasonal housing. Each grower might need two or
so units for his operation , primarily for his managers and family. You would
have to go to my seasonal workers housing consisting of wood platforms with
theft structures or seasonal workers, such as harvesters for your crop. I won the contract due to my actual
experience with building modular 3D
(three Dimensional) units, even selling
one company to Ford Motor Co.. My mobile p[lant took inspiration from
circus workers clever packing of their various components and materials on
trucks and trailers. My plant was based on about four trailers that unfolded
into various aspects of the plant line, it's and even the entire covered
structure, including fencing. Semi-skilled workers would be sourced from local
labor markets, where skilled foremen would be an integral part of the package.
3 bedroom, one bath
There is a lot of
exposure about 'Modular Housing' these days, but if you dig deeper into it all,
you will notice most of it is for million dollar homes and although it does
save a few months of construction time, it may cost more than conventional
housing.
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| 3 BR, 1 B, for family c. 1980 |
Also there is a lot of
noise about Mini-housing, but certainly not much done about it. We Americans
(North America) have an aversion to living in
small, multi-story housing, unlike the Europeans, who can rent you a
well designed unit for an amount you can afford.
Here in the USA we order
why so many families can't afford even older rental units and I believe it's
due to the fact we haven’t looked at the
problem from the upper end, in other words, How much does a family have to earn
in order to pay for a minimum place to. Live?
In other words,
"Let's take it from the top" .
Let's begin with how much
we can earn, starting with the magic $15 an hour.
If I work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, I can make $720 a week.(
Let's not take anything out of his check right now). That's $2,880 a month.
Let's say 1/2 goes to rent or $1440 a month. Maybe that works for you in the
Deep South, but you cannot even get a
studio here for that in the Western market area. That may work for a single
person, but add a couple of kids into the equation, it doesn’t' look good. But
what if there was free kid care ? Then the parent could actually make it, but the
care center would have to consider maybe
opening earlier and closing later.
HAVE I MENTIONED ?
That a guy named Garoppolo is paid about $30 million each
year? He’s a football or baseball player!
And he’s playing a game all us kids played in junior High school! Do you think a good teacher earns that much in
the USA? Just kidding!
GRAFFITI
On a lighter side, the Eropeans have a great sense of humor, adding a few notes to their One-Way signs.
On a lighter side, the Eropeans have a great sense of humor, adding a few notes to their One-Way signs.
