
Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
Friday, April 3, 2015
The Evolution of Armor

Team Spirit, 1987
Farm size
For somebody in agriculture in the West, looking at agriculture in the East is really a shock. I've just had the opportunity to do that several times recently, as I flew in and out of Toronto, and got a look at the area from the air, and then I flew the next week to Tampa and had to drive from there to New Port Ritchey. This past week I flew into Baltimore and a friend and I drove up to Carlisle on the state highway, one of the ones that no doubt runs on the 19th Century pike. Very interesting. Following that, I flew to Atlanta and then back over the south and the big grain belts of the nation.
Viewing the farm ground in Maryland and Pennsylvania was both a delight, and a surprise. For one thing, there's a lot of it. Just as Easterners have the erroneous view that the West is empty, Westerners, or at least native Westerners like myself, tend to believe that the East is one big city. It isn't. There's a lot of farm ground there.
However, even though I intellectually know better, it's weird to see it. The farms are, and have always been, so small by our standards out here. Grain farms just east of this region, well in Nebraska and Kansas, are enormous. Ranches are big, as they have to be. These Eastern farms are small and you can almost always see a nearby farm.
But, as the countryside in Pennsylvania and Maryland demonstrates, it's been that way for an extremely long time. Farms that are well over 150 years old are near others that are that age and older. And this should be no surprise, as they were all farmed with horse, mule, or oxen, under less than ideal conditions.
Indeed, the soil appears very rocky in some places and stone walls are everywhere, with stones taken, of course, from the fields. The land had to be first cleared of trees, and the forest continue to wage war against the fields and come back at the drop of a hat.
It was of course this sort of farming environment that the drafters of the Homestead Act were familiar with, and that's why the original homestead was only 40 acres in size. That was extremely unrealistic for this country, where it's always been the case that thousands of acres are needed to run cattle. What a shock it must have been to the first homesteaders.
And it continues to impact us today, as the unrealistically small homestead allotments yielded to the system we have in the West today by default, rather than by design, in spite of the views that anti ranching elements may hold about them. The system works, but it was based on a broken model to start with, and had to be repaired to work.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: Collecting Wood Wheeled History
WHEELS THAT WON THE WEST®: Collecting Wood Wheeled History: Since I publish this blog on the same day each week it’s inevitable that, as the years pass, some postings will land on Christmas, New Year...On that topic, here's something that suprrisngly has a set of wooden wheels:
This is a Renault tank from World War One. Arguably the best tank of that war (not that there a lot to chose from) the large front wheel of this tank was wood.
Friday, April 2, 1915. The Battle of the Wasa'a
Australian and New Zealand troops rioted while on leave in Cairo.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Last edition:
Wednesday, April 1, 1915. Improving airborne lethality.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The Weary Business Travelers Comments on Air Travel
We are told there was once an era when air travel was glamorous and romantic. For some it still is, no doubt. But for the business traveler, those days are long gone. What air travel is, is convenient.
It's safe, relatively fast, and all that. But fun it isn't. At least not after you have quite a bit of it down. And, quite frankly, while I like airplanes, I don't like riding in airplanes, so that impacts my view a fair amount, I'll admit.
But I'm sure I'm not alone. So, hence a few observations.
1. Business travelers probably aren't having fun on the plane, aren't on vacation, and may be cutting their schedule pretty tight.
One of the things I generally note about people travelling in airplanes is they're very polite as a rule. And there's good reason to be very patient, and people nearly always are. Some people have a hard time getting on and off of planes, and that's perfectly understandable and most people, indeed maybe all people, understand that.
But conversely, it's not uncommon for a business traveler to have very little time leeway. He needs to catch another flight, or a taxi downtown, or something, to make his schedule.
I note that, as there's some casual travelers who are really oblivious to this. The other day, for example, I was on a plane in which a nicely dressed young woman and her very well-behaved young children encountered another nicely dressed young woman and her very well-behaved young children, and they recognized each other. With about a third of the plane still needing to disembark, they stopped and had a protracted reunion conversation. Nobody yelled or screamed, but when she finally resumed her progress towards the door, I could hear the businessman seated across the aisle saying, under his breath "don't stop, don't stop." As this plane was late, and my connection not too distant, I shared that view.
2. Zone 2 is the Thundering Herd.
Aircraft board by zone. Generally, the first zone is made up of people who need help boarding and then a premium, or multiple premium, zones. Then zone 1.
Then zone 2.
For some reason, things generally go well until zone 2 boards. I'm nearly always in zone 2. Zone 1 forms an orderly line and progresses in that fashion. By the time they get to zone 2, every single person in the zone is convinced they're never going to get to board, and they start pushing, cow herd style, towards the gate.
Everyone is getting in the same plane, and this makes no sense, but it's really common. People cut in line, muscle their way in, etc.
Ironically, it's not uncommon for one of the herd to slow everything up, once he's on the plane. That's the guy who decided to bring his walrus for the overhead bin storage. He can't get it in, and has to try and try while the rest of the herd is stuck behind him.
United Airlines, I'll note, does a really good job of preventing this by having extra places for zone 2 to line up early. Once they're in a narrow line, they behave, again much like cattle. It's having no line to form up in as zone 1 moves ahead that seems to create this problem.
3. The window bogarters
I like to get a window seat, even if I don't like flying. That's because I do like scenery.
For some reason, however, there are people who take window seats, and then immediately close the shade. Hey man, if you didn't want to look out the window, why take a window seat?
4. The stenchy messy food girl.
Recently I've been noticing a trend for messy eating young girls on planes. This is a new one.
When I came back from Toronto recently, a young woman, nicely dressed, sat next to me. But she was an amazingly sloppy eater and had brought a sandwich on with her. She made a mess of that, and to make it worse, left her drink bottle on the airplane floor when she deplaned.
Not cool.
On the way back from Atlanta the other day, a high school aged girl sat next to me. She was industrious, and was writing a report on All Quiet On The Western Front on the plane, but she also came on with an Italian food special she'd gotten in the terminal. It was apparently the Spicy Noodle In Limburger Cheese Sauce special, and it was rank and stanky. Uff. Not good for an enclosed environment.
5. The drink people.
Every airplane flight in North America offers a beverage service. I am sure that if there was a commercial flight from Casper to Douglas, it would offer a beverage.
I get that in part. Flights are long, and people might need something to drink. And at least by common belief, some drinks settle the stomach, or so we're told. I've always been told that ginger ale does that, and I see a lot of ginger ale being drunk in airplanes.
But there are a lot of people who take drinks, because they are free. I’m always amazed when people take drinks routinely between Casper and Denver, for example. The flight is only 45 minutes long, having a drink is hardly worth bothering with.
This is particularly the case because the last few minutes into Denver is often rough, and the area right around Casper often is, both due to the atmospheric conditions associated with mountains. But, people trust their trays and place the drinks down even when the plane is bouncing around. Maybe they should trust them too, as I've never seen a drink bounce off a tray, but I've worried about it.
6. The talkative traveler.
I travel in aircraft a lot, and I always bring a book or work on the plane. I don't like traveling on planes, and so this serves to distract me, I suppose, although looking out the window, which I also like to do, probably works against that.
Every now and then, however, you get seated next to somebody very nervous or very talkative, or both. They want to talk, and they're going to. I've had an oil field consultant quiz me on towns to live in, in depth, all over the Rocky Mountain west, as if I am well suited to tell somebody where they ought to live. Some people want to tell you their life's story, or others, if you are reading a book, want to discuss it, rather than let you read it.
In other situations, I might find that interesting, but in an airplane, not so much. Something to do with the plane, I'm sure.
7. The dimwitted joke people.
One thing I've noticed is that every time there's an air disaster, or even a natural disaster, somebody in line wants to make a joke based on it. This is not amusing at all.
Recently for example I was in line when a passenger on a Delta flight tried to engage the Captain of the plane in some banter based on the recent suicidal crash caused by the Germanair co-pilot. This isn't funny, and won't ever be funny. I'd have tossed her off the plane, but he only gave her a nasty glare. Clearly he's more of a gentleman than I.
Wednesday, April 1, 1915. Improving airborne lethality.
French fighter pilot Lieutenant Roland Garros scored the first areal kill by firing a machine gun through a tractor propeller.
Last edition:
Tuesday, March 30, 1915. Germans fighting Arabs.
What's with all those dire warnings. . . .
So far, I'd note, this writer is correct, and I've heard others note this as well. This slow down is less severe than the one in 1983. . . so far. But that one started out milder than it ended up. With these collapses, the collapse doesn't come overnight. Another reader commented:Many of us went through more busts than booms in Wyoming working the oil patch.The current slowdown pales in comparison to the bust of the 1980's.Do yourselves a big favor ...get out of the oil patch while you still can,or pay the price later,in more ways than one.
We've lived in Wyoming for six decades. We love this state but hate its busts. We were one of many families who were victims of the bust in the early 80's. Lost our jobs, lost our house...lost everything. Though we've recovered it's been a long, long road. I'll never be able to retire comfortably due to the lost time and income. Take it from a man who's been in the fire: save your money now and don't wait!
Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on.
Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on.: And following on this: Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on. : Saudi production has reached 10,000,000 bbl per day, near (or perha...the Tribune made the topic of a possible oil collapse its Sunday feature. I was out of town, so I didn't read it in depth, although I tried to on my app for that. The Tribune did a nice job, in one article, of listing all the prior collapses, which is something I've written about here in the past (again, you heard it here first) but which the Tribune, having full time staff et all, did a nice job on. They listed the prior ups and downs as follows:
The Star-Tribune compiled a brief timeline of oil in Wyoming from the first sale to its current situation.Casper Star Tribune and Phil Robertson. Again, really nice job!
“In 1968, Gov. Stan Hathaway discovered that Wyoming had the grand sum of $80 in the general fund. 'That scared the hell out of me,' said Hathaway. 'I had to do something.'” -- Sam Western, “Pushed Off the Mountain, Sold Down the River: Wyoming’s Search for Its Soul.”
- 1863: “The first recorded oil sale in Wyoming, however, happened along the Oregon Trail when, in 1863, enterprising entrepreneurs sold oil as a lubricant to wagon train travelers. The oil came from Oil Mountain Springs, some 20 miles west of present-day Casper. ” -- Phil Roberts on wyohistory.org.
- 1883: Mike Murphy drills the first oil well in Wyoming south of Lander at Dallas Dome.
- Fall 1888: Casper’s first well is drilled 3 miles northwest of town.
- 1895: Pennsylvania Oil Company builds the first refinery in Casper.
- April 5, 1889: “The town was swarming with oil men. Something will evidently be doing soon.” – The Casper Tribune
- 1910: Franco-Wyoming Oil Co. is created. Construction on a refinery begins a year later.
- 1911: The Midwest Oil Co. begins construction of another refinery in Casper.
- 1914: Standard Oil moves into Casper, buying land to build a refinery.
- 1916 to 1917: "During the latter part of 1916 and for nine months in 1917 Casper experienced a wonderful oil boom,” according to a 1990 Gillette News Record article citing a historian.
- 1916: The Big Muddy Oil Field is discovered near Glenrock on a land grant section randomly chosen by a government surveyor for the University of Wyoming. Royalties from the oil field in the 1920s are used to build Half Acre, the current gymnasium, and the library, now the Aven Nelson Building. The building comes amid a statewide depression.
- June 17, 1921: A fire erupts at the Midwest Refinery Tank Farm in Casper, in what is widely considered one of the major disasters of the time.
- 1923: “The Producers and Refiners Company (PARCO) built a refinery and a complete town for its employees on the Union Pacific line in Carbon County. When the firm went into bankruptcy in the early 1930s, oilman Harry Sinclair bought the town on April 12, 1934, and renamed it ‘Sinclair’.” -- Phil Roberts on wyohistory.org.
- 1925: “It was 1925, the peak of the Salt Creek oil boom in Casper. ‘Smoke of prosperity hangs over Casper Refineries,’ said the headline in the 1926 annual ‘industrial edition’ of the Casper Tribune-Herald.” More than 23,200 people lived in Casper and Natrona County, beating Cheyenne and Laramie County by about 5,000 people. Some people predicted Natrona County’s population would reach 40,000 within a year. – “Boom overshadowed gloom in ‘25” by Irving Garbutt.
- Late 1920s: Crude oil prices peak in 1920 at $3 for a 42-gallon barrel before sinking to as low as 19 cents in 1931.
- 1940s: World War II boosts Wyoming oil production.
- 1946: Major oil companies move regional headquarters to Casper, which is, once again, coined “Oil Capital of the Rocky Mountains.”
- 1947: “Casper listed 55 oil field service, supply, and trucking companies. In 1953, this list showed 196 such firms. Stanolind Oil Company, with division and district headquarters in Casper, had 70 employees in 1947. In 1953, the company employed 316 people. Ohio Oil Company had increased from 104 employees to 167. The total number of companies and individuals listed as engaged in oil production and exploration increased from 27 in 1947 to 81 in 1953.” – “Casper, Wyoming, Oil Center of the Rockies” September 1954 edition of Out West Magazine.
- 1950s: Most small towns in Wyoming have their own refineries, including ones in Cody, Thermopolis, Torrington and Lusk.
- Late 1960s: Oil production continues to be strong, but Wyoming’s overall economy is in a period of “malaise,” said Phil Roberts. “By the end of the ‘60s, we were flat broke.”
* Historical information from Phil Roberts, a Wyoming historian and professor at the University of Wyoming, or the Western History Center at Casper College.
- 1969: Wyoming creates a severance tax to build state coffers.
- 1973: Arab oil embargo. Prices skyrocket to $40 a barrel. Gas prices nearly double.
- 1982: World price of energy crashes.
- Early 1980s: Headquarters of major companies, including Chevron and Exxon, move from Casper to Denver and then many to Houston or Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most small refineries, operating off of even slimmer margins, close.
- 1991: Amoco Refinery closes in Casper. “Had they stayed, they would have had to weather, how many years before it turned around? As a business decision, it was something they had to do looking down the road. But on the other hand, with the changing energy economy by the end of the 20th century, it would have been pretty profitable for them to stay in business.” – Phil Roberts
- Early 2000s: Enhanced oil recovery breathes new life into the Salt Creek Field. Horizontal drilling unlocks previously hard-to-tap shale reserves.
- Late 2014: Slow international growth and a rising tide of production from OPEC creates a slump in oil prices from $107 a barrel to below $50 a barrel in 2015.
Points go to the Tribune for running such an article, but I can't help but note how much this feels like 1983 all over again. I still have friends and colleagues outside of the oil industry who are trying to convince themselves it won't be that bad. At the same time, as I have a lot of oil industry contacts, I can see what's occurring. Lots of men I knew who were employed in the oil industry now are not. A good friend of mine in the financial world tells me that Texas expects 100,000 lost jobs in this sector this year. Texas has a population of 24,000,000 of course, basically rivaling the population of Canada, so that may not be devastating to its economy, but a decline in this sector here, where this is the single largest industry, is going to have a major impact. It simply will.
Not that there aren't opposing indicators people can point to, and do. Things are still being built, businesses are still going in.
Just like last time.
Writing is five percent inspiration. The rest is brute force. « M J Wright
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Today In Wyoming's History: Some Gave All: Gettysburg National Military Park, ...
Some Gave All: Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg Penn...
Monday, March 30, 2015
Tuesday, March 30, 1915. Germans fighting Arabs.
Germans and Bedouins fought for perhaps the first time in World War One when a party of stranded German marines from the SMS Emden was ambushed while being escorted to Jeddah.
Last edition:
Sunday, March 28, 1915. The first lost American.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
The Big Speech: Become such as you are.
Become such as you are, having learned what that is.
Pindar
Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Holy Ghost Roman Catholic Church, Denver Colorado
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Sunday, March 28, 1915. The first lost American.
The British registered Falaba was sunk by the U-28 in St. George's Channel with American citizen Leon Thrasher on board, leading to a diplomatic crisis.
Thrasher was the first American killed in World War One.
The British ferry Brussels tried to ram the German submarine U-33 after it tried to stop and board her. The submarine had to dive to evade being hit. Submarines were being treated as criminal vessels by the British due to unrestricted submarine warfare.
Last edition:
Friday. March 26, 1915. A view of Alsace.
Friday, March 27, 2015
Today In Wyoming's History: March 26
Amazing to think that it's that old, or that it was founded so soon after the University was established.
Unsolicited Career Advice No. 5. How do you become a rancher?
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Old Picture of the Day: President Roosevelt
Old Picture of the Day: Roosevelt in Knickers
Old Picture of the Day: Teddy Roosevelt in Earlier Days
Old Picture of the Day: TR
Old Picture of the Day: Teddy Roosevelt
Old Picture of the Day: Colonel Roosevelt
Closing our eyes
Lex Anteinternet: Peculiarized violence and American society. Looki...: Because of the horrific senseless tragedy in Newton Connecticut, every pundit and commentator in the US is writing on the topic of what cau...That essay came in the wake of a tragic mass killing and it looked at root causes, at a time during which a lot of public commentary was focused on proposed efforts that would not address them.
I mention that now, as we've just had yet another example of a senseless mass killing of a type we've seen several of in recent years, but we don't seem to see much proposed in the way of doing something about it. That is, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane that crashed into the Alps this week turns out to be mass murderer.
This isn't the first time in recent years where a commercial pilot has chosen to kill himself and all of his passengers. It's totally inexcusable on every level. A question remains about this, that being, why is so much attention focused on controlling implements for which the legislative control of which will not have a demonstrative effect, while there hasn't been any outcry about whom is allowed to pilot hundreds in the sky?
Yes, I know there's commercial licenses, but even on the simple applicable standards level, it would appear that around the globe various pilots simply don't measure up to the American standard. They should, and there's no reason that a universal, very high, standard can't apply to all commercial air carrier pilots. But beyond that, perhaps the time has come to place these men and women through some sort of psychological battery every six months. It won't catch them all, but it might catch some who are getting dicey, or even just sloppy. And maybe the time has come for a third pilot to be in the cabin, just in case. These are big complicated planes and there's been a lot of accidents, which might be reason enough, and might help to keep something like this from reoccuring.
Lex Anteinternet: The Distrubing Thesis of Capital in the Twenty Fir...
Lex Anteinternet: The Distrubing Thesis of Capital in the Twenty Fir...: I haven't read it yet, but I've been reading a lot about Thomas Piketty's new book, Capital In The Twenty First Century. The b...This morning, in reading my local newspaper, George F. Will reviews a new book with a counterveiling thesis, that being John Tanny's new "cheerful, mind-opening book, “Popular Economics: What the Rolling Stones, Downton Abbey, and LeBron James Can Teach You About Economics.". Will's article is boldy entitled "How income inequality benefits us all".
Will characterizes Tanny's book which I also haven't read, as boldy presentign a new thesis, but it what it apparently does is bodly defend an old one, that being that Adam Smith was right and we need not worry about jobs being exported overseas. The book apparently expertly cites numerous examples, with the basis nature of them being that when jobs like making Iphones go overseas, the price lowers so much that in real terms all of our incomes rise. The book isn't limited to that type of analysis, however, and also, apaprently, defends monopolies.
This is obviously quite the opposite of Piketty, whom I still haven't read, but it strikes me that in some odd ways they may both be correct and incorrect at the same time. Will's Tanny is correct, that buying at Wall Mart or from monopolies, and from companies that manufacture in the cheapest possible fashion, means less of our income goes into purchases, but it also can't be denied, as Piketty demonstrates, that the wealth that's generated gets concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, who are by extension more and more powerful.
The overarching thing, however, is that Will's cheerful defense ignores something, which Froma Harrop has been exploring in her recent articles. Nobody wants to be poor, but at some point an economy that serves only to produce wealth and do so efficiently is really soulless and concentrates people into jobs that they might not really like. In other words, what if some people, indeed a lot of people, are just flat out happier working as a machinist on the factory floor, rather than in some clerk job in the cubicle forest?
Friday. March 26, 1915. A view of Alsace.
The French took Hartmannswillerkopf giving them an observation post for Alsace.
The town of Miami Beach, Florida was established.
Last edition:
Thursday, March 25, 1915. Loss of the F-4.
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Thursday, March 25, 1915. Loss of the F-4.
The US submarine USS F-4 sank off of Hawaii with the loss of all 21 hands. It was the U.S. Navy's first submarine loss, discounting of course the CSS H. L. Hunley, the Confederate submarine.
The SS Tamar was sunk by the SMS Kronprinz off of Brazil.
Last edition:
Tuesday, March 23, 1915. Advances at Hartmannswillerkopf.
We're Not Taking Enough Lunch Breaks. Why That's Bad For Business : The Salt : NPR
I'm afraid I'm guilty as charged on this one.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on.
And following on this:
Lex Anteinternet: And the pumps kept on.: Saudi production has reached 10,000,000 bbl per day, near (or perhaps) an all time record high. This comes in the face of Saudi resistance ...
Monday, March 23, 2015
And the pumps kept on.
Accompanying, this Chinese economy, long seen as a potential major oil importer, has been slowing down over the past 11 months.
Neither of which is a good sign for American oil production. Hovering in the $50 to $60 bbl range for months now, a decrease in the Saudi price and a maintenance of Saudi production can't help but be noticed by the domestic industry's planners.
Tuesday, March 23, 1915. Advances at Hartmannswillerkopf.
French attacks on Hartmannswillerkopf got them within 150 metres of the summit.
Last edition:
Monday, March 22, 1915. The Imperial Russian Army captured Przemyśl
Monday at the bar: Courthouses of the West: United States Bankruptcy Court, Denver Colorado
Sunday, March 22, 2015
The Big Speech: War is sweet to the inexperienced
πεπειραμένων δέ τις ταρβεῖ προσιόντα νιν καρδία περισσῶς.
War is sweet to the inexperienced, but the experienced man trembles at its approach
Pindar.