Census: Fascinating Night View of America and Southern Canada

Pop. U.S.: 308 Million 

Pop. Canada: 34.5 Million

Courtesy: B. Martin-Anderson

Each dot represents a person. Population is noticeable to the east of a line to the north and south of Houston, Texas. Lower population in the western states is evident, with the exception of the far west coast and a few urban centers.

What is a home, anyway?

Here are a few fine quotes expounding on the idea of 'home' ~

Every one of us needs a home. The world needs a home.
There are so many young people who are homeless.
They may have a building to live in, but they are homeless in their hearts.
That is why the most important practice
of our time is to give each person a home.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Home is any four walls that enclose the right people.
- Helen Rowland

My home…It is my retreat and resting place from wars,
I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest
outside, as I do another corner in my soul.
- Michel Eyquem De Montaigne, 1533 – 1592

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

and these gems ~

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don’t come home at night.
- Margaret Mead

Bring love into your home for this is where our
love for each other must start.
- Mother Teresa

I found these quotes in an incredible photographer's blog by Steve McCurry, one of the world's great travelers too. This journal of a lifetime of photos (so far) from an award-winning National Geographic photographer helps picture an "important world elsewhere".

Here are a few more I have found on my own, which I hope you enjoy ~

Who has not felt how sadly sweet
The dream of home, the dream of home,
Steals o’er the heart, too soon to fleet,
When far o’er sea or land we roam?
-Thomas Moore (1779–1852),The Dream of Home.


’Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there ’s no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which sought through the world is ne’er met with elsewhere.
-J. Howard Payne (1792–1852)


Peace and rest at length have come
All the day’s long toil is past,
And each heart is whispering, “Home,
Home at last.”
-Thomas Hood (1799–1845, Home at last


Ay, now am I in Arden: the more fool I. When I was at home I was in a better place; but travellers must be content.
-William Shakespeare (1564–1616), As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 4.


And the star-spangled banner, oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
-Francis Scott Key (1779–1843), The Star-Spangled Banner.


From our own selves our joys must flow,
And that dear hut, our home.
-Nathaniel Cotton (1707–1788), The Fireside. Stanza 3.

Worthy Interiors

Easton Neston, Northampton, England

Architectural Digest

The venerable Architectural Digest has pictures online, and has photos of impressively-renovated Easton Neston, a former royal residence near Northampton, England.

Map of Northampton, England 

This is my idea of a beautiful interior, since it doesn't intimidate me the way some modern properties do. The entire appears comfortable and cozy. The incredible garden by itself, however, must require incredible maintenance.

The interior utilities have been been tastefully renovated, and I especially admire the kitchen. The kitchen can often be overlooked but is the most difficult in a house to refurbish. The result is a certain perfection rarely seen in the present day, when some consider carved woods a manifestation of slave labor rather than an art form.

For further interior design excitement, you might try Houzz, a new site rocking the design community with photos of thousands of home interiors. Well worth a few moments of your time, it's hard not to spend untold stolen minutes on this time-friendly site.

A Few Random Questions

Here are some ordinary, every day questions on varied topics....

• Why don't people generally say they are sorry if they've made a mistake? Are they busy and forgot, or are they afraid it is a sign of weakness?
  

• When people have good cell phone reception, how much better are their relationships than if they have poor reception, especially if they are not conscious of the importance of the quality of the phone lines?  

• Why are Afghans angry if their teenagers want to play together?

• Why does American society, as a whole, play dead to bigger crimes and make innocents pay the costs of justice - which may or may not happen?

• Why is the head of the Tea Party holding up the two sides of the debt debate from making a settlement if, as she said on CNN, she is neither Republican nor Democrat, or even elected? 

•  Why did Michele Bachmann say she will try to impeach the President when any agreement on the debt debate is a joint decision made by many people from both parties?

 

• Why can the 'buying pool' of my 'house for sale' in America only afford to rent not buy, time after time???

I don't think they have short answers.

The Garden State Surrounds Princeton

 

Now, I know I have written about the town of Princeton, New Jersey in the past. I guess I could expand and write about our entire area for your enjoyment. Many beautiful towns  and lands surround our world-famous centers of learning here, such as Princeton University, amid the pricey real estate in Mercer County.

Towns immediately surrounding Princeton are to the west and southwest, Lawrenceville, a town within Lawrence Township. Both Princeton, surrounded by Princeton Township and Lawrence Township have their own school systems.  Further southwest is the state capital of Trenton, originally a centre of industrial porcelain manufacturing, china and pottery.

West and northwest of Princeton, to the north of Lawrence Township are the towns of Pennington surrounded by Hopewell Township. Hopewell Township also extends to the north of the Princetons, Princeton town and Township, and includes the town of Hopewell to the north. They have pharmaceutical research companies, and offices of technology companies.

lawrenceyerkes.com

To the east of Hopewell is the dividing line between Mercer County (the 609 area telephone code) and Somerset County, which is more to the north. The suburban towns of Skillman and Montgomery are contiguous to the east with the Borough of Rocky Hill, an old small town. All the housing here is either existing, with old farms, large and small, being divided into lots for already existing housing developments.

lawrenceyerkes.com

Highway 206 is an important north/south route that extends up to North Jersey, and divides Skillman from Rocky Hill, in general. These are all within Mercer County which has 13 municipalities, and has a  2009 population of 366,222 (est.) amid New Jersey's 8.7 million people.

To the east of Rocky Hill and south is the town of Kingston which extends all the way south past Highway 27, which becomes Nassau Street, the main street in Princeton, and then stops and joins Route 206, which it is named and extends west to Lawrence Township. 

South of Route 27 is Route 1, the classic old route with traffic lights between New York City and Philadelphia, where new housing developments in Plainsboro have expanded rapidly in the last ten years. South of Princeton are the towns of West Windsor, and Princeton Junction, the location of the major train station with trains to New York and Philadelphia, airports and beyond. A small train connects Princeton town with Princeton Junction Train Station and is a useful alternative form of transportation.

Further south of West Windsor are the towns of Cranbury, Hightstown (pron. HEIGHTS-TOWN), Robbinsville, Hamilton and many more. The area is dotted with parks, shopping centers, and golf courses.

Princeton is about half an hour to the Jersey Shore, 45 minutes minimum to Wilmington, Delaware , south of Philadelphia -  a speed record I heard about.

lawrenceyerkes.com

Whichever way you arrive,  when you get to Princeton, New Jersey, it's a great place to  visit.  The surrounding area also has many farms to visit, and to choose from in case you are in the market to buy a new property. There are many sizes of farms for equestrians which are very popular. And farm estates are available for those without a big interest in horses, many of which will allow you to raise sheep, chickens, cows and alpacas.

FOR Stricter Gun Controls

Revelations some families condone gun possession for recreational use, hunting, for self-defense against animal or human aggressors, and for presents, as gifts are described in this article in The Huffington Post.

As reasons to understand gun ownership in an open society, let's take apart the arguments.  These are words to use to say to your personal circles, if you are in favor of strict laws, or  just need reasons to lose the unwanted, inherited weapons, capable of mass destruction.

Using guns for recreational use, as aggressors and hunters do, is not popular in areas of the country with developed houses, suburbia, and the cities. Sure, the military use them; police use them; even farmers use them. For food, health-inspected meat from a grocery store is more safe and appropriate to eat (even better for your health is a plant-based diet).  Guns are dangerous to children and to wives in the hands of abusive husbands.

The next argument: guns are for self-defense. Guns are used more for offense, not  self-defense, as many studies show. Both human and animal aggressors are infrequent in rural areas.  Human aggressors should be recognized as the criminals they are;  they face severe legal penalties when caught and punished. Animal aggressors, wild animals with rare exceptions, do not attack humans unless provoked or cornered.

Lastly, guns as gifts. Wonder if families talk about them as they sit around the dinner table and thank each other for those guns. A gift of money, on the other hand, the hard stuff, would be more useful now and to the next generation.

The author of that article, Mitchell Bard, says politicians in the northeastern U.S. are far more likely to condone gun control than politicians in the south and west, with the exception of California. This map, from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, proves gun controls are strongest in California  (scoring 79/100 points) and the northeastern states, and weakest in the midwest, especially Arizona (scoring only 02/100 points!). If every bullet cost an unreasonable amount of money, and if politicians cleaned up their words of vitriol, there wouldn't be any point selling guns; the demand simply wouldn't be there. I know, I'm dreaming.

History lesson: President George W. Bush endorsed the pro-gun lobby for the people of America, and in 2008, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling, allowing guns for self-defense. Notably unhelpful, since guns and ammunition can already be sold without background checks. There are only "gun shows"...There are no "victim  shows"...

America's powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) spends a fortune with emotional appeals on television to push "freedom" as a message, as if Americans will lose personal freedom if they give up their guns. The aggressive NRA commands Americans to buy them because guns scare away everyone and everything. Words from the other side, against the anonymously funded NRA's brawny slogans is the inspiration for my post, to write for the silent, unrepresented victims, and to urge for stricter gun controls.

True fact:

"Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths, and higher household gun ownership correlates with higher rates of homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings."
Brady Campaign

Everyone knows we rarely buy anything with the purpose of not using whatever it is. Most people use what they have, especially if they've paid for it. Guns are no exception.

There it is in a nutshell: what we don't have, we aren't likely to use.

Let's not play a game with safety, or think about using a gun to hurt  anyone. Please don't buy a gun to start with, or accept one as a gift. Stop the cycle.

A Canadian reporter wonders why there are so many guns in America here':

I don’t recall anyone saying, “I’m worried this rhetoric might inspire a perfectly sane person, with a coherent political theory, toward violence.”

Yet the initial outrage over the event was lost in the ensuing outrage over the outrage. By midweek, the bullet through the head, the deaths and the injuries almost disappeared.

The extraordinary violence of the act nearly vanished as the media apologized for asking obvious, relevant questions.

... they seemed to swear off asking other relevant questions: Why are there so many bullet wounds to the heads and bodies of Americans? Why is this normal? Why are there so many guns?

 T. Southey. The Globe and Mail.

UPDATE: I would like to thank the writer of an article in The New York Times which investigates current gun control research entitled:  NRA Stymies Firearms Research, Scientists Say, which completely disposes of the counterarguments promoted by the National Rifle Association. The NRA uses brute force without punishment to stop funding of basic government research into gun violence and squelches any form of opposition with billions and billions of dollars in financing, physically intimidating and threatening the lives and livelihoods of scientists, according to the article. 

The power of money to destroy opponents can be just as powerful as that of guns. Unfairly, the NRA has choked off money for basic research that would undoubtedly help increase the safety and comfort of Americans. Would that those who are able could take up the fight against gun violence and help the Brady Campaign, which is a sole provider of gun-related research in America. It could help bring more civility and peace to this divided country. Why not have a closer look at all aspects of the National Rifle Association? If they are a non-profit, they are obligated to welcome the interest, because of the tax benefits they receive from the government. 

Real Estate "Agents Without Borders"? Not Likely Anytime Soon

Most people don't think about real estate agents until they need them, and if asked, don't have much idea of what they do besides sell houses. Did you know that you are at an advantage if you familiarize yourself with real estate law, especially if your property is complicated? I used to wonder why American Presidents tend to be lawyers; the odds are stacked against a politician who isn't a lawyer. Young politicians are wise to study law.

The concept of selling property is grounded in real estate law. The reasons agents take real estate courses, at least here in America, are varied:
1)to guide buyers with professionalism to make better real estate choices
2) to deepen agents' knowledge of statewide real estate laws and regulations
3)to obtain real estate licenses to legally sell property
4) to belong to the governing body of the Board of Realtors

The rigorous education and useful knowledge of laws are invaluable to a general understanding of society. We can only thank history for changing the ugly, old ways of redlining (not giving mortgages in subprime areas), blockbusting (telling certain minorities to move out), and steering (showing buyers certain areas (usually more expensive). How can constitutional infringements be nipped in the bud? Probably the answer is they can't, at least not easily.

                                                   Our New Jersey farm, north Lawrence Township

Real estate agents in New Jersey (especially North Jersey) learn three different areas: real estate principles of residential and commercial real estate in general, NJ real estate laws and regulations of the Real Estate Commission, and thirdly, Pennsylvania, South Jersey customs and laws. North Jersey follows New York law more than Pennsylvania and South Jersey law.

New Jersey enjoys two different tax customs, in North and South Jersey, something I hadn't appreciated in the last 27 years. Legal practices south of I-95 in New Jersey follow Pennsylvania customs. For example, in South Jersey and Pennsylvania, attorneys aren't at closings, meaning that, in practice, attorneys are more likely to stop sales just before closing. Attorney reviews, the North New Jersey alternatives, happen after a residential sales contract is signed and take three days. I suppose it could be debated which has better laws, New York or Philadelphia.

Transfer taxation of realty is an issue that is not uniform around America. It would make life easier if it were. Uniformity of laws would make enforcement easier. Unnecessary divisions complicate justice. I didn't think New Jersey and Pennsylvania law could be so dissimilar. And those are just two states.

How many people pay cash (in percent per year) for houses in New Jersey or in the USA for that matter? Simple question. I can't find an answer, and I'm told it doesn't matter anyway.

Some Countries With The Most Tourists Have The Worst Rest Rooms

Countries with the greatest number of tourists are listed in order in a report by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

1. France

2. United States

3. Spain

4. China

5. Italy

6. United Kingdom

7. Turkey

8. Germany

9. Malaysia

10. Mexico

The blog "The Titanic Awards" has a courageous, if unscientific list of nine countries with "the worst" public rooms here. Oddly enough, France, Italy and Mexico occur on both lists, producing plenty of scope for humor and possibilities to start new lists, starting at the worst:

1. China

2. India

3. France

4. Italy

5. Thailand

6. Egypt

7. Turkey

8. Mexico

9. Indonesia

Is there any agreement on this? I doubt it. While many, if not most of my precious viewers would beg to differ, the point is...it's important to renovate public rest rooms whether or not tourists flock simply to promote good health. Bathrooms are thought of as indicators of general living standards and governments write laws and codes about them. 'Nuff said.

Beautiful Photos At Number One Photography Website

My newest terrific web find is "Stuck in Customs" 2009 winner of the PhotoBlog Award.


stuckincustoms.com

This photography method uses image-layering High-Definition (HDR) techniques. It's a content-heavy site to browse wonderful photographs for budding photographers of all ages. The author-photographer of the site, Trey Ratcliff, has an especially helpful article called "10 Principles of Beautiful Photography."

This one (enhanced) of a lone pine in California was taken on his iPhone:



He gives lots of information on which cameras to use as well. There's a photo here to please everyone. To me they resemble the most beautiful paintings.

Here's a sunset with clouds in Bangkok, Thailand:



Palace near Agra, India:



Here's an informative article at the Tierney Lab page at the New York Times.

Favorite Places in America and Canada: My List

The United States --
Cities: NYC, Washington D.C. Capitol area, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego
Country Dream: Western New Jersey, Napa Valley, Lake Tahoe, coastlines, farmlands
Must sees: Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Vernon, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Yosemite National Park.


Canada --
Cities: Ottawa ~ Canada's Capital, Quebec City~ the old town, Toronto, Vancouver
Country Dream: Ottawa Valley, Muskokas, Sand Spring Island, islands, lakes, farmlands
Must sees: Cabot Trail, Maligne Lake ~ Jasper National Park, the Great Lakes, Sea-to-Sky Highway, Niagara and other Falls to the North.

How to get a new septic system installed - From a consumer's point of view

There are many websites to read with information from companies and engineers and videos, too, that are very helpful. Here are suggestions to achieve septic system installation success and completion from the consumer's point of view. This is a map. Here is our story.

1. Have a septic inspection performed to decide if you need a new one. I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough, as my story below details,* but if you are selling your home, and you have a septic system, an inspection must be made, at least here in New Jersey. It is the job of the septic inspector to check the current size of the tank(s) and decide whether they are sufficient in proportion to the number of the bedrooms in the house.

2. Hire a Septic Designer. If you do not think you need a new septic system, pay for another, more thorough septic inspection. If the need for a new septic system is required, ask around, specifically to the septic inspector, for the name of more than one Septic Designer. These are engineers with degrees in agricultural engineering and experience with land management of all kinds. They will be your official planner and manager of your project that you hire to draw a physical plan, organize the visits by various town officials for approvals and recommend and help supervise local septic system companies who will question your engineer on the design.

The Septic Designer will make a plan for a new system on your land, listen to your opinions, and design it wherever on your property you can both agree on, and should take the tension and fear out of the project for you. It is not necessary to be on site for this project, except perhaps meeting with the Septic Designer at a bare minimum. Signings of a new septic system plan and eventually the septic system installation contract must be completed, but a good Septic Designer is a great asset to guide the project to successful completion. (Nobody would want an unfinished septic system on their property.)

3. Have a field test performed. Your Septic Designer will want to test the ground and have a large hole dug six to twelve feet deep into the earth to test the composition of the soil, and to take water tests to determine the depth of the water table. He (or she) will organize this dig and have excavations performed. Charges will be made depending on the quantity of work done (i.e. the number of exploratory holes dug). This will involve the company's delivery (temporarily) of equipment (backhoe(s)) to your home.

4. Obtain a design from the Septic Designer. When your Designer draws up a design he is likely to ask you for remuneration for his services rendered. This amount is very worthwhile as he makes the project run without a hitch, or at least it did in my case. He will tell you the approximate cost you should expect to have to pay for the installation, and that will help define your financial responsibilities. Then the Designer gives you an official copy (or three) of the septic system plan and he also gives some copies to the municipal office.

5. Pay for permits and approvals.These fees can usually be mailed, paid in person or by the Septic Designer. The town health officer visits and okays the project in this town.

6. Choose a septic system company. You will likely wish to speak to those who will be responsible for digging up the earth and finishing the project. These septic system installers are the ones you will be paying the most to for the project. The Septic Designer should be able to provide you with a list of four or more experienced and reputable local septic system installation companies. The septic system companies can make estimates and sign contracts at your convenience, even on weekends. You should look for a company with great experience, capability and reliability.

By now, your Septic Designer is on speed dial and can be consulted as an independent sounding board as you carefully choose your septic system company. Your landscaper and local municipal officials will also likely have definite opinions on the work of local septic system companies and can be another valuable source of information as you choose the appropriate company. You may or may not wish to use the company that performed the Septic Designer's field test. (We used a different company for the installation.) The septic system companies will look at the project and come up with an estimated price that the Designer will already likely have estimated for you as the approximate price you should expect to pay. The actual installation process takes seven days or less.

7. Sign a contract with the septic system company and firm up the date. The date of completion can be included in the contract to protect yourself. Specifying continuous days (except weekends) is also achievable and desirable, weather permitting.

After signing off on the contract, all you need to do is to come up with the money to give to the septic system company in regular checks during and after they dig.
Earth-moving machinery will arrive on your site. Meeting the septic company's lead managing supervisor is always nice. They love to be thanked throughout the process, although of course, you, the consumer deserves to be thanked. I know. The contractors will remove earth and dig a large hole according to the Septic Designer's plan. The location of the hole might have to be shifted if there are boulders hidden underground.

The house system is connected to the new system, and disconnected from the old system, and only requires about six hours use (or less) of the house interior water supply to build that connection.

The installation of new piping is followed by truckloads of sand (at least this location required sand from the Jersey shore) to embed the septic equipment. By now there will be much upheaval of the ground, and many trucks (about 75 truck visits in my case, mostly repeating). There will also have been many visits by the town health and engineering divisions (coordinated by the Designer and septic system company) to further okay the project.

8. Expect it to be landscaped after the project to obtain final approval. After the work has been completed, the earth must all be roughly leveled to grade, then more finely graded for landscaping and seeded by professionals hired by the septic system company. This is all part of the cost from the septic system company.

9. Obtain all necessary final approvals to complete the project so that when it comes time to sell the house, everything will be in order.

From first inspection to final approval our project took four months to complete. Our permits for the project totaled $1,000.00. And our entire project cost about $400.00 for the septic inspection, $3,000.00 for the septic design, $1,600.00 for the field test and about $36,000.00 for the installation of the project. The actual installation was dug continuously taking less than a week because of the excellent weather conditions in late August, on time and on budget. Final municipal approval came after grass was growing on top, four months from the beginning.

The outline above is intended to to assist you in a helpful way with the steps involved in the project of getting a new septic system installed. Your experience and costs will ultimately likely vary somewhat from this. But it is a road that many others have traveled on and we hope from this you can foresee the general route.

Getting a new septic system installed is a daunting prospect for those unfamiliar with the process. After it’s all done, and works perfectly, you will feel virtuous, environmentally correct, and very relieved that it is over.

*Here’s our story: Our old stone house in west central New Jersey is about 200 years old (c. 1810), with a 1930s addition on one side. To sell it we needed to have a septic inspection completed even though there was not a single thing wrong with our existing system.

A septic inspector (step 1) who was recommended to us by a friend dug down to our septic tank and estimated the size, but the size was not sufficient to the number of bedrooms we had, something the town officials require. He guessed that another tank I mentioned to him was a cesspool or something but did not dig down and find it. He said he couldn’t find it. He orally failed our system but has not, seven months later, provided us with a report.

The Septic Designer took the word of the septic inspector that we needed a new septic system and drew up the plan. When it came time for the septic company to dig, they disconnected and completely disabled the septic tank and then went to the other tank and found while digging that the second tank was not a cesspool but was another good septic tank, and that the two together were sufficient for the number of bedrooms we had. They decided that we had two septic systems, one coming out of the old part of the house, and the other coming out of the 1930s addition. But by then, it was too late in the process to stop, and the work continued. We now have a brand new septic system.

The town housing inspector now says that we should have had another septic inspection made, but only told us that information after the new system was installed. One would think that the first person, the septic inspector, paid to make the decision would do the job properly. Getting another general septic inspection and maybe several would have been a good idea.

Also, I am less than happy that we had to have a new mound in the grass above the septic field. An unmounded look was my one requirement that was not met. I was assured all around, but only during and after the installation, that the mound is absolutely necessary and unavoidable in our area to obtain final approval. A small elevation was threatened, but a large mound is there now. Perhaps bushes and small trees will disguise it.

Maybe someone out there can benefit from this and not get a new septic system if there is no need for it.

If you are near the Princeton, New Jersey, area, I highly recommend these companies:

Craig Patterson, of Septics by Patterson, Inc., 887 New Road, Churchville, PA 18966, (215)942-9017. Our gratitude goes to our Septic Designer and son, for his patient explanations and strong but gentle guidance throughout the process.

Thomas Burd Excavations, Lambertville, NJ 08530-2610 (609) 397-1157. Awesome field test performance on a hot day.

Ernest Consoli & Sons Incorporated, 155 Hopewell Wertsville Rd., Hopewell, NJ 08525 (609) 466-3258 did the septic system installation. Thanks for doing such a big job.

Manhattan real estate market cools

After seven years of nonstop construction, skyrocketing...sales prices, ... the credit crisis and the turmoil on Wall Street are bringing New York’s real estate boom to an end.

...Developers are complaining that lenders are now refusing to finance projects that were all but certain months or even weeks ago.

...Examples of aborted deals and troubled developments abound. Last Friday, HSBC, the big Hong Kong-based bank, quietly tore up an agreement to move its American headquarters to 7 World Trade Center after bids for its existing home at 452 Fifth Avenue, between 39th and 40th Streets, came in 30 percent lower than the $600 million it wanted for the property.

...Barry M. Gosin, chief executive of Newmark Knight Frank, a national real estate firm based in New York, said: “Today, the entire financial system needs a lubricant. It’s kind of like driving your car after running out of oil and the engine seizes up. If there’s no liquidity and no financing, everything seizes up.”

...“Any continued impediment to the credit markets is awful for the national economy, but it’s more awful for New York,” said Richard Lefrak, patriarch of a fourth-generation real estate family that owns office buildings and apartment houses in New York and New Jersey.

“This is the company town for money,” he said. “If there’s no liquidity in the system, it exacerbates the problems. It’s going to have a serious effect on the local economy and real estate values.”*

The New York Times

Oct 1, 2008

My question: Does it get worse before it gets better?