Array By comparison it was a dull book year, but the five standouts were Ian McEwen/Atonement, Sebald/Austerlitz, an old Alan Furst called The World at Night, the preposterously titled but wonderful Alice Munro collection HateshipFriendshipCourtshipLoveship Marriage, and as always this yearâs Anita Brookner, Bay of Angels. Treating me better than I deserve to be treated, he followed this up with a delicious black bean stew.Though Iâm anxious to read the Lily Tuck short story collection that Daniel gave me, I neurotically consider this an unworthy candidate for first book of the year. But Iâm starting the year with Henri Michauxâs strange book of drug-induced Belgian aphorisms, Tent Posts. I think I may sell some of his sixty books but Iâm not sure. I loathe sunshine in winter- weâve had only a couple lovely gray days and almost no snow, just day after blinding arctic day, the sun slicing horizontally across the edge of the sky, making me sneeze and giving me headaches.Clintonâs dog Buddy was killed by a car today, and my friend Billâs friend Debâs black lab- also called Buddy, one of a brother/sister pair- also just died. The thought of Georgia, the other one, named for OâKeeffe of course, alone now, makes me cry.I crave a book. He has a new boyfriend, though we donât talk about it.The Woodland Pattern Book Centerâs annual fundraising read-a-thon is next weekend. Carl asked his friend Stacey for material suggestions and she said âFrench poetry.â This gave him license to buy a bunch of books but he remained unfocussed. Usually I donât have many by this point in the season but Yale has six this time, stunning art books that are awkward to carry around but people will buy a book they can hold in their hands more often than one simply described in a catalog.- laptop- gym bag (another resolution)- suitcase (clothes)- briefcase: folders for each of the three presses, account lists/address book, my personal catalogs loaded with additional notes, work in progress, office supplies.- jacket kit: binders containing covers and interior art. Various non Harvard/MIT/Yale notebooks, magazines, newspapers, aspirin, phone, camera, CDs, books Iâm reading or plan to read.Zak, our dog, watched me pack in seeming disbelief. The idea of asking the businesslike Amy at West Bank Books if I can take her picture for my photo documentation project deflates me and I fear itâs dead in the water before it starts. While she has pretty specific numbers in mind, she has smart questions and is willing to take my (mostly superfluous) suggestions seriously.Our conversation shifts seamlessly on and off task- one minute weâre discusing the sales potential of a book on why smart people behave stupidly, the next, whether she made the right wallpaper selection for her hallway. Towering piles of old and new catalogs, stacks of galleys and finished books, computer printouts, flyers and faxes and paper of every sort. He had been a buyer here for as long as anyone could remember, through the halcyon days when students and professors bought enough non-required academic books to warrant stocking them liberally.To sell books to this man was an exercise in distraction avoidance. This seasonâs book on X would call forth anecdotes about the similar book on Y ten years ago, though âanecdoteâ is too generous a description of these Bill Moments, because the one thing these digressions usually lacked was a central anecdote. Refocussing him on the catalog before the phantom book had been identified was a skill I never perfected.Aside from books, Billâs passion was movies. Every book has to be shelved somewhere, and some books come with a bewildering array of potential homes. But unlike most buyers, who eventually settle on one idea of what a book is mainly about and put it there, Bill would add a copy to his order for every section of the store in which the book could plausibly be found. For a rep selling books with designations like âhistory/gender studies/performance/cultural studies/philosophyâ ( a not atypical MIT press configuration), this could be good news indeed, as the one copy became a five. Itâs the rare book on her watch that finds itself in more than one category.There are two other branches of the university store- one, at West Bank, specializes in political science, history and law, and the buyer, Amy, comes from an old Minneapolis bookselling family. Followed that up with a bag of items from the most delicious Mexican bakery in the midwest, Marissaâs.Jan 9Ruminator Books day. Normally I like to dedicate the whole day to them but had to schedule both Minneapolis Institute of Art and Amazon Feminist Books for late afternoon. He loves university press books, and though he tries to be realistic about their market- Macalaster College is liberal but small- heâs always on the lookout for offbeat, quirky discoveries that the chain stores wonât appreciate. We share a tendency to âmakeâ a book into the book we want it to be in pursuit of this quirky grail, and we try to check runaway enthusiasm. The store is great, itâs a relaxing and rewarding sales call, and I always end up buying too many books myself.
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-ne I want to meet a girl that will allow me to drown in her sweet, sweet love. I took a personality test a couple weeks ago and it said that because I have such a deep understanding and desire of true love, I would be doomed to be always looking because (according to this thing) like 80% of people are satisfied with far less when love in concerned than I am.
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( must finish sewing up, stuffing and then add a face.) 80% complete - Chicken tea cozy. ( began knitting it to help my mom figure out a pattern.) 25% complete - Crocheted baby blanket.
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Reflective of the present political situation, there is a fierce and often personal debate on the state and effects of air emissions and climate change, how forests and national parks should be managed, what man’s relationship to biodiversity should be, how energy should be developed and utilized, in essence, how development should be sustained. It has the potential to transform our communities, homes, schools, energy requirements, and for states like Arizona, how to develop within the knowledge economy framework. The Expo’s 93 exhibitors/ sponsors, over 60 speakers, and 74 seminars/ workshops/ tours clearly showed how different sectors of society, from engineering, power, design and architectural firms, schools, government, civil society, Native American communities, and individuals are all seeking to develop the technology, systems, policies, and framework on sustainable development for the 21st century. The congruence of the rising apprehension on the long-term stability of energy sources and energy prices, the rising costs of environmental impacts caused by pollution and resource degradation on the economy and health of the citizenry, the increasing pressure on Congress and government to institute and enforce environmental laws, rules, and regulations and the developments in environment-friendly and affordable technology, are creating the critical mass for the mainstreaming of sustainable systems. Oil Supply Situation In his keynote speech, Randy Udall of the prominent political family of Arizona, author, and Director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) based in Aspen, Colorado, as well as in Solar Energy International and Colorado Renewable Energy Society, soberly yet wittingly informed us that the U.S. has already consumed 65% of about 260 Billion gallons of oil produced within its borders as of year 2000, with peak production reached in 1970. Renewable Energy The Expo’s theme is that there are alternatives to the looming energy supply crisis, aside from going to war in the Middle East, and that is by increasingly adopting energy efficient and renewable energy systems. State rebates of up to 55%, income tax credits, net metering can help recover the approximately 2,000 solar electric system that a typical family in Arizona, California, Delaware, Oregon, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island is expected to spend (Altair Energy), in lieu of the absence of action from Congress and the administration on promoting renewable energy systems. Other forms of renewable energy production (RE) discussed extensively were the successful use of biogas from CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) and landfills (methane), geothermal energy, biomass (from forest thinning operations) in different parts of the state by different entities from Arizona Public Service (APS), Sandia National Laboratories, to the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA). The focus on school buildings is evident in studies that show that a high performance school building which has an integrated design, day lit classrooms, good indoor air, green building materials (no off-gassing), sustainable site planning, and ecological solid waste management, has resulted in a 20% and 26% increase in math and reading skills and 30% energy savings, especially in light of the fact that 76% of U.S. schools are in need of repairs. Savings of about 08 Billion are expected over the next 10 years from these energy saving technologies and systems. About 1,400 manufacturers have achieved Energy STAR labeling across 28,000 individual product models in 40 product categories, with one billion Energy STAR products purchased. Further, EPA reports that more than 2,000 builders have constructed 200,000 Energy STAR qualified new homes to date resulting in an estimated homeowner energy savings of 0 million annually. The nation has to leapfrog into a more sustainable energy development program and not copy the pollutive path taken by the developed countries. Energy efficiency and conservation measures go hand in hand with the development of RE systems.
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Primary components of corn yield in the tropicsIn order to develop an index for estimating the yield of corn hybrids in the tropics, a stepwise multiple regression analysis (SMRA) using stand at harvest (SAH), prolificacy (P) and seed weight per ear (SW/E) as independent variables, was fitted on yield data from six replicated yield tests and four commercial trials. The SMRA results in the replicated yield trials, which had less variable SAH among entries due to overseeding and subsequent thinning, revealed that SW/E was consistently the most important yield component followed by P and SAH. The three yield components were all good predictors of yield as shown by the significant coefficient of determination (R2) ranging from 0.725 to 0.997 in the six trials. Number of seedlings per hill and ratooning ability of rice (Oryza sativa L.)In an experiment to study the effects of varying the number of seedlings in a main crop, on the plant stand and tiller regeneration of the ratoon crop, 20-day-old seedlings of rice variety IR44 were transplanted at 1, 2,4, 6 and 8 seedlings per hill. The effect of organic and inorganic matter amendments on rice growth and yield in an acid sulfate soilGreenhouse experiments were conducted to determine the effects of straw, CaC03, and Mn02 on the electrochemical and chemical kinetics rice growth and yield in a flooded acid sulfate soil. Calcium carbonate, alone or in combination with MnO2, depressed Fe2 concentration in the soil solution and significantly increased straw and grain yields. Adding 0.005% MnO2 (by weight of the dry soil) increased the Mn2 in the soil solution, depressed the Fe:Mn ratio in the plant tissue and increased grain yield significantly over the control.
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] All in all, a fun day - in particular the uphill climbs were exciting, so was the view from Kailashgiri, and the chat with the students!