Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company
FRIDAY REPORT OF 03/03/06
The Most Direct, Frequent Link to Knowledge Workers in the Eastern Forest Economy
WHAT IS RELIGION?
Is religion what we participate in when and why we go to church? Is it the sphere in which we follow the commandments of God? Is this the same God who gave the commandments to the Prophet Muhammad that are recorded in the Koran?
If answers to these questions are “Yes,” then various sects or denominations across the world are Sunni, Shia, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Episcopal, etc. Each member of each sect must decide for himself how to interpret God’s commands in his actions. If you are not like a Sunni, Shia, Baptist, or whatever, who are you like and why? To see how others interpret His commands, click on http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_VVVGGNQ
“FOOLS PUT FAITH IN DATA ALONE
by James Sheehan”
Our title and quotes are from an article posted on the Mises Internet site:
“Practically every major hedge fund manager in the country has read Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Random House 2004)…
“For the lay reader, it demonstrates how randomness influences all types of human action and helpfully exposes the futility of macroeconomics and econometrics. Taleb is a Wall Street derivatives trader, mathematician and fellow at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences…
“His main thesis is that human beings, due to emotional defects in their cognitive make-up, are prone to underestimate the role that randomness plays in almost all financial and economic outcomes. These defects are actually biases and mental shortcuts that make people overconfident in their predictive powers, setting them up for randomness traps. What appears to be investment skill is often (but not always) the product of good luck…
“While it is obvious that portfolio managers and investors often stumble due to the miscalculation of risks, economists, policymakers and forecasters are subject to similar errors. Taleb, who has studied and practiced econometrics extensively, faults the economics discipline for imputing certainty where none is warranted:
“What has gone wrong with the development of economics as a science? Answer: There was a bunch of intelligent people who felt compelled to use mathematics just to tell themselves that they were rigorous in their thinking, that theirs was a science. Someone in a great rush decided to introduce mathematical modeling techniques…without considering the fact that either the class of mathematics they were using was too restrictive for the class of problems they were dealing with, or that perhaps they should be aware that the precision of the language of mathematics could lead people to believe that they had solutions when in fact they had none…Indeed the mathematics they dealt with did not work in the real world, possibly because we needed richer classes of processes – and they refused to accept the fact that no mathematics at all was probably better…
“Nor do they account for the possibility…that people will incorporate predictable patterns into their expectations, thus canceling out the predictive value of such patterns…”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.mises.org/story/2056
“GREENLAND’S GLACIERS: MELTING AND ON THE MOVE”
Our title and quotes are from an 02/17/06 posting on SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.com:
“The glaciers in southern Greenland are melting and moving. In fact Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier went from standing still in 1996 to flowing at a rate of 14 kilometers a year by 2005, making it one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world…
“‘It takes a long time to build and melt an ice sheet, but glaciers can react quickly to temperature changes,’ notes Eric Rignot, a glaciologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ‘Greenland is probably going to contribute more and faster to sea level rise than predicted by current models.’
“Rignot partnered with Pannir Kanagaratnam of the University of Kansas to look at satellite data on Greenland’s glaciers. New satellites and new techniques allowed the two to figure out how fast the glaciers were moving, thinning and even what the bedrock beneath them looked like. Based on this data, the researchers found that the glaciers were traveling faster than anyone had predicted. They also determined that even more northerly glaciers were on the move and that in just 10 years the amount of fresh water lost by all the glaciers had more than doubled from 90 cubic kilometers of ice loss a year to 224 cubic kilometers. ‘The amount of water Los Angeles uses over one year is about one cubic kilometer,’ Rignot points out…
“But Greenland contains an ice sheet that covers 1.7 million square kilometers – an area nearly the size Mexico – and is as much as three kilometers thick in places. If it all melted, it would raise the world’s oceans by seven meters, though that is not likely to happen soon…”
To read the entire article, click on http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0004F545-037C-13F5-837C83414B7F0000
“HOW DO SALT AND SUGAR PREVENT MICROBIAL SPOILAGE?
Mickey Parish, chair of the Nutrition and Food Science Department at the University of Maryland, explains.”
Our title and quotes are from “ASK THE EXPERTS” department of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.COM:
“Protection of foods from microbial spoilage using salt (usually sodium chloride) or sugar (usually sucrose) has ancient roots and is often referred to as salting, salt curing, corning or sugar curing. (Pieces of rock salt used for curing are sometimes called corns, hence the name ‘corned beef.’ Curing may utilize solid forms of salt and sugar or solutions in which salt or sugar is mixed with water. For instance, brine is the term for salt solutions used in curing or pickling preservation processes. Examples of foods preserved with salt or sugar include the aforementioned corned beef, bacon, salt pork, sugar-cured ham, fruit preserves, jams and jellies, among others.
“…All curing processes fundamentally depend on the use of salt and/or sugar as the primary preservation agent or agents. Incidentally, these processes not only prevent spoilage of foods, but more importantly serve to inhibit or prevent growth of food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella or Clostridium botulinum.
“There are several ways in which salt and sugar inhibit microbial growth. The most notable is simple osmosis, or dehydration. The salt or sugar, whether in solid or aqueous form, attempts to reach equilibrium with the salt or sugar content of the food product with which it is in contact. This has the effect of drawing available water from within the food to the outside and inserting salt or sugar molecules into the food interior…”
To read the complete article, click on http://www.sciam.com/askexpert_directory.cfm and then on “ASK THE EXPERTS” and then on the question in our title.
“THE GREATEST JOURNEY
Ever Told
The Trail of our DNA
by James Shreeve
What accounts for the ancient wanderlust? Perhaps some kind of neurological mutation led to spoken language and made our ancestors fully modern, setting a small band on course to colonize the world.”
This fascinating 14-page article, complete with maps, diagrams, and photos, appears in the March 2006 print edition of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Don’t miss it.
USED BOOK SALES
We offer for sale all used books listed at http://www.vardaman.com/booksale.php.
OUR SYSTEM FOR BUYING OR SELLING LAND OR TIMBER
For details, click on http://www.vardaman.com and then on the red horizontal bar “Buy/Sell Land/Timber.” You can offer to buy or sell timber or land. You must post the general area of your interest; be sure to include the state. You must also post your E-MAIL ADDRESS and the URL of your Internet site. Our tracking report will not report the number of visitors UNLESS you enter your URL. If you are selling, you should post the name of the tract. When you have entered all details, click on “Submit,” and what you just entered will appear on our Internet site at the bottom of the page under the red horizontal bar “Buy/Sell Land/Timber.” Be sure to check for and correct errors.
For each tract posted and whose owner posted his URL, we charge $0.50 for each visit his ad receives. On each Friday at 0900 Central Time, we will e-mail him a bill for $0.50 for each visit his ad received during the week just ended. You can pay us by e-mailing the money to “Vardaman Virtual Forestry Company” at PayPal or mailing it to P.O. Box 12293, Jackson, MS 39236. We will delete your ad when your payments cease.
SELL LAND
For tract in AL, send e-mail to landsale@larsonmcgowin.com
BUY LAND
For tracts in SC, send e-mail to loblolly@surfbvi.com
For tracts in SC, send e-mail to rich@CHRISTOPHERRADKO.COM
For tracts in MA, send e-mail to leonelmtz65@hotmail.com
For tracts in OR, send e-mail to 7200moore@charter.net
For tracts in OR, send e-mail to ptodd@orclinic.com
For tracts in FL, send e-mail to hot63vdub@hotmail.com
For tracts in TX, send e-mail to reedkimbley@hotmail.com
For tracts in TX, send e-mail to gilmerboy2@yahoo.com
For tracts in GA, send e-mail to RNP1003@aol.com
For tracts in AL, send e-mail to jbeale@sterlingmanagement.com
For tracts in TN, send e-mail to robmccarthy@redstoneproperties.com
BUY TIMBER
For tracts in AR, send e-mail to dyork@digitalpassage.com
For tracts in IL, send e-mail to psftimber@hotmail.com
For tracts in MT, send e-mail to crawlings@mtcdc.org
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