Thursday, November 10, 2016

1904 - It costs $4,000 to raise a boy. Is it worth it?

Somebody has figured out that it costs $4,000 to raise a boy and then asks if it pays. That depends. If after raising a boy until he was 21 years of age, and spending a good lump of money in getting him thus far, we found that he resembles some people we know, we would feel discouraged and want our money back. The boy who never held anything down except a dry goods box, and who never raised anything except a smoke from a dirty cigarette; who spends his Sunday school hours in loafing on the public square instead of sitting in a church or at home, and who will not go to school because he is too lazy to study his lessons -- that kind of a boy is a poorer investment than buying real estate in the Missouri river. But the boy who reaches the age of 21 and appears to realize that he is a man with a duty to perform, and goes at that duty with his sleeves rolled up, a whole bundle of good, clean energy; ambitious to make a clean record for himself in the world -- that's the sample of a boy that is worth the $4,000 and dirt cheap at that. - Red Oak Express.

The Nebraska Advertiser
Nemaha, Nebraska
Friday, September 30, 1904

1921 - Whole World Scorched by Hot Wave

SCIENTISTS ARE BAFFLED BY THE CONTINUOUS HEAT

Conditions in Europe More Severe than in the United State

Conditions Here Declared To Be The Warmest Since 1901, But Europe Has Had No Such Weather in the Last 50 Years.

(BY H. B. HUNT)

WASHINGTON, July 19. - Uncle Sam's weather experts are stumped.

The hot wave prevailing not only throughout the United States, but the whole of the north and south temperate zones, is, they declare, without rhyme, rule or reason.

While the United States has been in the grip of a heat wave not equated since 1901, England and Europe have been sweltering in temperatures greater than have been known for 50 years.

Alpine glaciers, dissolving under the abnormal heat, have swollen mountain streams to raging torrents.

In other sections, streams have dried up, wells gone dry and crops are parched.

Grazing lands are burned dry and stock raisers, without forage and with little water for their animals are desperate.

Fires have caused large damage in many European forests. Inhabitants of villages scattered through the famous forest of Fontainbleau, near Paris, refuse to go to bed for fear fires, many of which have been put out by desperate efforts, will sweep the great wood.

"We have not been able to identify any exact causes for the conditions," says Dr. Charles F. Marvin, chief of the government Weather Bureau.

"There is no provable relations between the weather and sunspots, although sunspots are blamed by some. Sunspots occur and recur at intervals, but it never has been possible to identify them as exerting a definite influence on weather.

"The most exact measurements of solar radiation reveal little if any change in temperature due to them. As a matter of fact, however, we are now passing through a period when sunspots are at the minimum.

"Neither is there any basis for ascribing unusual conditions of weather to earthquakes. It would be just as logical to ascribe earthquakes to unusual weather influences. There is no established proof either way."

One of the most unusual features of present world weather conditions, Marvin said, is the similarity of conditions in America and Europe.

"Usually," he said, "they do not run parallel. When we have a hot summer in the United States, it generally is cool in Europe. When it hot in Europe, it normally is cool here. But the present hot weather seems general throughout the temperate zones.

"What it is due to, no one can say with any degree of assurance."

An examination of Weather Bureau charts covering the past few weeks, show a temperate averaging 10 to 12 degrees above normal in the Great Lakes region, the Dakotas and Minnesota, and from 5 to 8 degrees above for the remainder of the central states and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Only one section, comprising Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexia, has been below normal.

Compared to the summer of 1901, when mercury stuck above 100 degrees in Mississippi valley states for over 20 days, the present summer has been a balmy, pleasant and exhilarating one.


Mt. Vernon Register-News
Mt. Vernon, Illinois
Tuesday, July 19, 1921





1902 - Hint to Coal Consumers

"A Swedish professor, Svend Arhenius, has evolved a new theory of the extinction of the human race. He hold that the combustion of coal by civilized man is gradually warming the atmosphere so that in the course of a few cycles of 10,000 years the earth will be baked in a temperature close to the boiling point. He bases his theory on the accumulation of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, which acts as a glass in concentrating and refracting the heat of the sun."

The News-Herald
Morganton, North Carolina
Thursday, October 23, 1902

2016 - We Need to Preserve Our Past AND Our Future

"The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group of over two thousand scientists, has concluded that global warming is beyond dispute, and already changing our climate. The last 30 years have seen the warmest surface temperatures in recorded history, and the past several years have been among the warmest on record.

Scientists have concluded that human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, is the major driving factor in global warming..." learn.eartheasy.com/

Sadly, our leadership either does not care or is too stupid to realize they need to care. Either way, this is going to have to be a grassroots fight. We can do this if  we find ways to prove to the masses that the entire future of this planet depends upon it. Each one of us needs to reduce our carbon footprint.

In future posts, we will explore ways to preserve both our past and our future. We will offer interesting articles and tips on what each of us can do. By becoming more aware and making (in many cases) minor changes to our lifestyles we can live healthier lives while ensuring that our children and grandchildren have a future as well as an appreciation for the past.

To learn more, check out National Geographic's Before the Flood.