Money is worth whatever social convention or the government decides it's worth, and it's value is fluid. It is the only mechanism by which the exchange of goods and services can be accomplished efficiently, but the value of those goods and services is fluid, too. It's the only game in town, and I'm at a loss to think of a better system. I don't know if any modern currency is backed up by any physical object of value, like gold; it all seems to be a matter of faith.
Gold is a neat metal, with many uses beyond the aesthetic. I read recently that all the gold ever mined in the history of the world would fill a cube only about 20.5 meters on a side, which doesn't seem that big to me. But a little gold goes a long way, and can be melted down and reused indefinitely. Gold has real value, unlike diamonds. That's quite a scam that the DeBeers company has going with their complete control of the diamond market, but that's another story.
But whenever I think of gold I also think of King Midas, and things didn't work out so well for him, did it? There's a lesson there somewhere.
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What does the Finnish Beaglestonian think of that?
Hey, keep me out of their ideas of negative income tax. My heritage is an accident of birth, and if I wasn't told I had some Finnish blood I would never have suspected it. I think their weirdness is more cultural than genetic, but what do I know? The Finns do some things amazingly well, but I've never heard of a Finnish stand-up comic. Is there even such a thing?
I don't know what to think of guaranteed income but it may be on the horizon if we end up with more people than jobs. It may come down to the question of what people should be doing with their lives. It's hard to live a fulfilling life when your job is spending all day gutting chickens, cleaning fish, picking deformed potato chips from the assembly line, or staring at a monitor and pecking at a keyboard. The founding fathers mentioned something about "the pursuit of happiness" but said nothing about actually attaining it. Philosophers have chewed on the purpose of life for thousands of years and we have yet to arrive at an answer. Maybe the chewing itself is the purpose, or the purpose is whatever the individual decides it is. For some, it's religion, and for others it's the carving of totem poles.
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Regarding terra preta, Mr. Beagles suggested using coal instead of charcoal (both mostly carbon) but I don't think it would work. Charcoal has lots of little pores which coal lacks and the coal itself contains many impurities, depending on the type, which is why it is such a nasty pollutant when burned. The combustion of wood to make charcoal releases less CO2 than regular burning, and Wikipedia has much more to say on the subject. Charcoal is still used for household cooking in many Asian countries.
If I had some land suitable for gardening, this is an experiment I would like to try. Dig three holes, each about one foot cubed, about five feet apart. Take the soil from one hole and mix in a couple of pounds of powdered coal. Do the same with another hole, but mix in a couple of pounds of powdered charcoal (real charcoal, not the Kingsford stuff) instead. Take the soil from the final hole and just mix it up the same as the other two holes, but add nothing, as a control.
Then plant something in the holes, it doesn't matter as long as it's the same for all three holes and it isn't something that will feed the wildlife. Then leave them alone, and wait. Will there be any differences in the plant growth? I suspect the coal mix will fare the worst because I don't think earthworms will like the taste of coal.
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And why is it ivied halls, isn't the ivy on the outside, shouldn't it be ivied walls, have I been misunderstanding all these years?
Without Googling an answer, I suspect that a hall is a structure, whereas hallways are internal corridors and are not conducive to the growth of ivy. I wonder if Uncle Ken has ever surreptitiously acquired any cuttings from the outfield wall of Wrigley Field. That would make a swell souvenir for his balcony garden, don't you think? Matter of fact, he may not have to sneak into the ballpark for the ivy. There are plenty of buildings in that neighborhood covered with ivy, which, I suspect, originated from the old ballpark. That stuff proliferates very well on it's own.
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