New Brunswick NB Budget 2021: Damage Report When I wrote last year's version of this post, the Coronavirus pandemic was just becoming apparent in North America. Since then, most of us have obviously had our expectations for 2020 disrupted, and public finances were no exception. In this post, I want to
History The Left Bank of the Rhine This post contains a review of Lotharingia: A Personal History of Europe's Lost Country by Simon Winder, along with a bit of programming practice I did recently. Lotharingia is a history/travel book about the swath of Europe where French and Germanic cultural regions
DIY Kitchen Cart This post is a quick description of a recent DIY project I did. One of my first projects of 2021 was building a storage cart for my kitchen. Here's a picture of it: Finished cart (except for stain/varnish).The top surface has space
Links Assorted Links (Winter 2021) I like to save up interesting links I find that are related to themes I've covered here on my blog, and then share them periodically. To start with, here's a chart mapping the current state of the field of mathematics. Also on the subject
archive 2020 Year in Review My customary annual retrospective. At the start of the year, I mentioned I intended to reduce my blogging frequency to one or two posts per month. I didn't even hit that target (ending up with 9 posts)—but I had a very good reason:
Book Monsoon Prospect Here's the promised forward-looking Part 2 to the historical book reviews from Part 1. In the previous part of this series, I wrote about some of the history of the Indian Ocean. In this part, I'll be looking at the geopolitical outlook of the
History Monsoon Legacy This post is the first part of a two-part series I have planned. It is about the history of trade on the western Indian Ocean and is based on reviews of a couple of books I read this year. Part two will look forward
DIY Greenland Paddle In this post, I wanted to share a project I did this year: building a kayak paddle. The paddle I built is more-or-less in the Greenland style. I adapted the instructions/dimensions from here. Here is a summary of the steps I followed: Starting
Wedding Details Information for invited guests Here are some of the photos from our wedding that we wanted to share: Livestream link (starts at 2:00 p.m. ADT, 1:00 p.m. EDT, 5:00 p.m. UTC). A note on RSVPs: Everything seems to
Ideas Profit as Slack These ideas have been percolating for a while. I'm getting around to writing them up now because the Coronavirus situation has really shown the value in carrying a margin in good times. Also, at the bottom of the post you can find some links
environment Harvesting Algae and Other Parts of the Biosphere This post is a rambling review of a couple of books and a technical paper that are all around a common theme of obtaining renewable resources from photosynthesis. The books I'll be covering in this post are Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil and
Links Assorted Links (Spring 2020) I like to share interesting links I've collected on a somewhat regular basis. It seemed especially timely when many people could be looking for things to read while stuck at home to slow the spread of COVID-19. I won't spend this whole post on
New Brunswick NB Budget 2020: Is Demographics Destiny? At the time of writing, this budget may or may not pass, due to it being a minority government. Budget approvals are always considered confidence votes, so if it is not approved, expect an election. In any case, I decided to write my annual
Science @ Home (Rocket)ship in a bottle It's hard to believe we're already a month into 2020. This post looks back at something I built as a Christmas gift for some kids. Bottle rockets are a fun toy. Unlike most rockets, they don't rely on combustion. This makes them safer to
Blog Info New Year, New Format Regular readers will have noticed that it looks different around here now. Read on for a few details. There was an update to the Ghost blogging platform that my previous theme wasn't compatible with. So I reverted to the default "Casper" theme, which looks
General 2019 Year in Review An annual retrospective and convenient archive. I've had a good year. I started a new relationship, tackled a project on my house (with a lot of help from family!), took an introductory whitewater kayaking course, and started writing a book. I initially thought that
Book 10 Books Before '20 At the start of September, a friend on Facebook issued a challenge to read 10 books before the end of the year. I decided to share the brief reviews I wrote here. The rules allowed for books you were in the middle of when
Graphical Methods Nomography Nomography is the art/science (both are involved) of graphical calculators. Using a nomogram, you can quickly solve an equation (but only the one it was designed for) with the aid of nothing more than a straightedge. It's something I've been interested in for
Water Wilderness Water Treatment Workshop At a camping symposium this fall, I had the privilege of leading a workshop on wilderness water treatment. I figured it would also be of interest to share my notes here. Note: This information is only provided for educational purposes. Drink water in the
DIY Concrete-Top Side Table For this post, I wanted to share a recent piece of furniture I built. It is a small side table with a concrete top and an oak stand. Overall, the table is 22" high and the top is 10" x 10"
General Assorted Links (Fall 2019) A couple of times per year, I like to share some links I've collected—especially if they relate to topics I've blogged about. It seemed like a decent way to (try) getting back into posting. There are a lot of lists on Wikipedia. To
Blog Info Hiatus Announcement There was a fair bit of a gap prior to my previous post; you should expect a longer one before the next one. I've decided to take a break from blogging for at least a few months. I have several other things keeping me
Book Polynesian Pacific Sorry about having such a long gap between posting. I've been on a couple of business trips, and when I've been home my social calendar and the hot weather haven't left many good opportunities to sit down at my computer and write. Sea People:
New Brunswick Sam Orr's Pond This past weekend, I went on my first camping trip of 2019. I started off the weekend in the town of St. Andrew's, walking around and looking in a few shops. Just outside the town is the Caughey-Taylor nature preserve. I've previously mentioned wanting
Economics Legibility and the Firm I recently took a sales course for my job. Some of the discussion there prompted some thoughts about ideas I've read/heard and how they relate to the modern business world. Legibility I initially came across the concept of "legibility" in a