Cheese from Human Milk

A chef tries making cheese with mother's milk, and it turns out...ok.

Resist the Housing Cult

A blog at the WSJ, says that using Federal Stimulus money to reestablish housing construction as the basis of our economy should be resisted:

....The U.S. economy is in transition, reconstituting itself into something that isn’t yet clear. But here’s what is clear: we just don’t need many new homes.

Consider the following. The U.S. has about 131 million housing units... Of that only 112 million are occupied. That means 19 million or a staggering 14.5% of all available housing is empty.

...It seems that the only Americans who really need more new houses are the American home builders.

Raise My Taxes, Please!

...For transit that increases value in our city:

This paper uses data from U.S. cities to investigate the incremental costs and benefits of high quality transit service. The analysis indicates that high quality public transit typically requires about $268 annually per capita in additional tax subsidy and $104 in additional fares, but provides vehicle, parking and road cost savings averaging $1,040 per capita, plus other benefits including congestion reductions, increased traffic safety, pollution reductions, improved mobility for non-drivers, improved fitness and health. This indicates that residents should rationally support tax increases if needed to create high quality public transit systems in their communities. Current planning practices tend to overlook or undervalue many of these savings and benefits and so result in underinvestment in transit quality improvements.

From the The Victoria Transport Policy Institute.

Mt Echo Exploring

Still fascinated by East Price Hill. Last Sunday, daughter had a birthday party to attend there, so son and I explored Mt Echo Park.

The views from the overlooks are fantastic. I just had my cell phone camera, but we sat here a while watching the Southern Railway trains heading up into the hills of Kentucky while the tow boats re-arranged the barges.

We took a hike on one of the very under used trails and ended up off trail and finding cool stuff, like fossils, old bottles and identifying plants, etc...

Found this spooky vacant house in the woods with a view of the river:

[where: 2736 Montreal Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45204)

The undercanopy of most of the woods is choked with honeysuckle bushes. At the entry to the park, the undergrowth has been cleared, and they left some great swinging vines. This was a hit:

Strange vacant house across from the park entry:

[where: 360 Elberon Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45204]

Next stop: Embshoff Woods.