I have things to say on these posts that I cannot get through at this hour.

I am expecting a collapse of the US $ in the near future. As the $ is the world reserve currency there will be a world currency crisis. Not a happy prospect.

Industry

When I had access to the SUNY Stonybrook libraries The question of the industrial revolution occurred to me.
I pulled out a few books and began to read.
I soon concluded that the authors I found had, again, not done their homework.

There was no agreement as to what the event was, what caused it, or what changed.

Joseph Needham wrote an enormous "History of Chinese Technology". It is a better framework than anything I found by direct simple search. Unfortunately it deals with failed industrial revolutions in Han China, not in Britain and America.

I came to this study wondering why manufacturing innovation was not readilly accepted. It was what I wanted to do. I found that it is disruptive of the established order. The driving force behind industrial development in the atlantic basin was just such a disruption. The outs wanted in and were quite willing to do it by the development and application of wealth. Once established themselves, they make every effort to preserve their position.

The joy of this is in the stories, the details.

The doctors found nothing significant. The neurologist found a slight deficit. Barely more than normal aging. Permission to drive will not be soon restored.
The primary care doubled the check up period.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-26-2010/elizabeth-warren

Worth reading . . . http://www.ianwelsh.net/a-small-victoryhttp://www.ianwelsh.net/a-small-victory/

Haiti

I am embarrassed by our nations' response.

Emergency medicine and search and rescue are necessary but insufficient.
Population support should have equal status.
Clearing and activating the seaport is now long overdue.

An alternative:
Amphibious landing of supplies.

Another:
A port improvised from river barges and assault bridges.

If we were to support the population in place, and ship cement, rebar and form work they will rebuild in months. Aggragate appears to be every where.

Let the Haitians work. Tell them how to build better.

I am in NYS

Hospital discharge. I am locked in for some weeks.

I see the bay area is rife with art schools. There must be a dearth of day jobs.
I can do studio assistant. It is a real effort.
Renting studio space might be a better way.

This morning at about ten thirty I took my mother over to the hospital.
Diagnosis: pneumonia.

When they found her a room at 8:40 this evening, she was feeling almost good.
I will see how things develop.

I think we dodged this bullet.

Biedermieir

Several books showed up this season. One in particular.

When I was in art school the first time there was a body of work that was disparaged. Unusual. Most work was examined and analyzed. We learned to get the effects without the mysticism. We learned to be good mercenaries.
It was the sixties. Mid century was gone and there was no replacement. We played. Our gods were the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus was an attempted revolt against German Romanticism. The label it was given was Biedermieir.
I was looking for watercolor technique and found a large format catalog of a show on the style out of Milwaukee. We were misinformed. The period lasted 1815 - 1845 in central Europe. The work is roughly contemporary with Shaker and reminiscent in style. I like most of the examples. Things do get strange as Victoria gets dominant. I will think more on this.

http://www.truthout.org/topstories/121709vh1