Friday, November 05, 2021

Little Library on the Town Green

17 comments:

  1. Given the belfry, I wonder if the library might have originally been a schoolhouse.

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    1. Yup. It was Jericho Academy from 1825, when it was built, until 7 March 1899 when the residents of the town voted to make it a Library, at Town Meeting that year. So, it was a school for about 74 years, and has been a Library for 122 years, so far.

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    2. Bicentennial in four years, eh?

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  2. I spent most of the day working on the queen sized quilt I'm making for Wil and myself. I'm in the hand-sewing, applique phase. So far, so good. I suppose I ought to take a look at the news of the day. Not in a big hurry to do so. All I know so far is that we had 377 more cases on Covid reported and 3 more deaths. And still no mask mandate.

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    1. I just glanced at the gnus before going to to zoo with Naomi and sketching/painting for three or four hours (photo of one exhibit sent to you to share with the blog, listener).

      I didn't notice any news that struck me as of immediate importance. It looks like BYD is the most formidable electric car manufacturer on the planet, but for now in the US they are concentrating on buses, trucks and commercial energy storage. Their next sales target is Australia (where they will market a pickup truck among other models--probably in preparation for the US market), then to NZ, the UK and the EU. Toyota and Mercedes-Benz have given up and will be buying underbody assemblies (chassis, battery, motors, computers, etc.) from BYD for their electric autos. Volkswagen group (Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Cupra, Ducati, Jetta, Lamborghini, Porsche, RUF, SEAT, Å koda, and Volkswagen passenger cars) seems to be running scared of Tesla; Tesla seems to be rowing, bailing, and trying to emulate BYD's vertical integration just as fast as it can; it is starting to use BYD batteries. Whether, and if so how, Ford and GM can survive seems open to question. Next year's BYD models will be adapted to very cold weather (easy-peasy: battery heaters). Some academic-commercial research group in the US announced an improved anode for lithium batteries that gives a 25% increase in energy storage. BYD's batteries don't explode or burst into flames, can be completely charged and discharged, and after the car falls apart around them, they will have enough capacity remaining to have considerable resale/salvage value. Sounds good, but our Toyota Camry will probably last longer than we can safely drive. My inner engineer blabbing away. . .

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    2. In addition, whereas Tesla started at the luxury end of the auto market and is slowly working its way down to less expensive vehicles, BYD's auto business plan is just the opposite.

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  3. The House is voting on the Infrastructure Bill RIGHT NOW!

    Currently 124 YEA to 108 NAY ... including 4 Republicans (so far) who have voted YEA.

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  4. 208 YEA (incl. 8 Republicans)

    189 NAY (incl. 5 Democrats)

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  5. Needed to pass: 218

    Currently:
    215 YEA
    194 NAY

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  6. 🌟🌟🌟 PASSED!!! 🌟🌟🌟

    219 YEA (incl. 10 Republicans)

    198 NAY (incl. 6 Democrats)

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    1. An inch is as good as a mile, but a mile is a lot better. Wow.

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  7. FINAL VOTE:

    YEA: 215 Democrats and 13 Republicans
    NAY: 206 Republicans and 6 Democrats

    The Bill now goes to the President!!!

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  8. AND NOW they're voting on a motion to "reconsider".

    Man, the Republicans are such sleazebuckets.

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    1. As you might imagine the vote is going much the same way.

      So far:
      193 to not reconsider
      181 to reconsider

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    2. FINAL VOTE:

      228 to not reconsider (including 7 Republicans)
      205 to reconsider (ALL Republicans)
      1 did not vote

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  9. Good as far as it goes. Now what about Build Back Better?

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    1. They were doing some preliminaries to that vote. I have the impression that they're breaking for the weekend, then coming back for BBB on Monday.

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