voluntaryXchange

Quote from "A Revolution In Arms"

Students of human nature often assert that humans are special because they are the animal that uses language; or writes language; or uses mathematics; or uses fire; or uses tools.

Some of those have been shot down over the years.

Economists are fond of saying that humans are the animal that trades.

Joseph G. Bilby's A Revolution In Arms: The History of the First Repeating Rifles adds another one:

Some say man is a thinking animal, others that he is a risible animal, and that these attributes make him human. One could just as easily posit that man is a throwing animal - at least a projectile-oriented animal... [pg. 1]

I think he has really hit on something unique there.

Park City Recommendation Coda

The ziprider that I mentioned yesterday is apparently the longest in the world. The steepest and fastest zipline is down the road at the Utah Olympic Park.

And ... I forgot to mention the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City (20 minutes from Park City). I can't recommend this for adults, although it is cheap. For kids, a small zoo is sometimes a lot better, and our 5 year old was able to handle it with no problem. They are currently featuring an albino alligator.

North Star Trivia

The terms "bear left" and "bear right" are based on navigation by the north star; ursa minor (the little bear) is the constellation whose tail ends at the north star, and which rotates to either side of the star.

Park City Recommendations

Here's what I liked (and didn't) in Park City this time around:

• Reef's Kitchen - A Mediterranean restaurant owned and operated by Israelis (actually, Polish Jews, then Israelis, then New Jerseyites, then Utahns). The place is in Kimball Junction (where you get off I-80 before the last 5 miles into Park City). The menu is small but eclectic.  Highly recommended are the  Moroccan Salmon, the Veal Schnitzel, and the Halvah cookies. The rest of our meal (seasoned fries, potato salad, chicken schnitzel, and the appetizer sampler were also far above average.
• Burger King - I hate Burger King, but we stopped at the one on Park Ave. in a pinch. Easily the best one I've ever been to.
• Blind Dog - An old established sushi and seafood restaurant in the Prospector neighborhood. The kids and adults all loved it. They were out of roe though.
• Alpine Slide - I figured out a trick to this: go in the evening only. The slide is slower during the heat of the day. I'll probably never ride it before 7 PM again.
• Alpine Coaster - This is new this summer (it was supposed to open last summer, and I'm not sure if it ever did). I liked it a lot. It's fast, smooth and quiet. I did zero braking on my first run, and had a blast (although the vXgirl refused to ride again afterwards).
• Heber Creeper (in Heber City) - We took the 3 hour ride to Vivian Park on this old train. It was very pleasant and scenic. The ride is a tad on the long side, and the wait at the bottom is no fun, but the rest of it is worth it. As an added plus, drinks and snacks are really cheap on the train.
• Museum of Ancient Life (at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi) - This is an annual summer pilgrimage for us. Once again, we were not disappointed. It is simply the best fossil museum around. Allocate extra time for the kids (of all ages) to play in the erosion demonstration. I'd also highly recommend the gardens at Thanksgiving Point, but I have trouble getting the other family members to go.
• Marriott Mountainside Resort - A fantastic deal: two bedrooms, two baths, kitchen, kitchenette, living room, washer, dryer, and 3 DVD/TV players all for less than $150 a night. Plus a great pool with 5 hot tubs.
• Park City Museum - Free (donations accepted). A good place to take a kid who wants to learn about mining.
• ZipRider - I didn't go this year. But ... I'd recommend that anyone even remotely interested just try it once. It looks scary, but is not at all scary to actually ride. So anyway, just go - at worst you can say that you tried it and didn't care for it.
• A Lift Ride - We took Payday to its top (only 1/3 of the way up the mountain). A golden eagle buzzed us to make it extra memorable.

Not recommended:

• Miniature Golf - I played with the vXboy, and the course at the resort is in bad shape and poorly maintained (even for Putt-Putt).
• Alpine Slide - It opens at Noon, and the track is slow until the sun goes behind the mountains.
• Merry-Go-Round - the kids wanted to go. I think even they thought it was dull. I thought it was expensive for what you got.
• KFC (in Heber City) - What can I say ... it wasn't my choice?

The vXdad

My dad is 80: thoroughly eastern and suburban.

He worries: about everything.

He called as we were leaving town to remind us to take pepper spray in case of bears.

We're going to a resort hotel in downtown Park City.

His justification was 1) there are bears everywhere west of Cleveland, and 2) they use pepper spray in zoos. I didn't tell him that they use pepper spray because they care more about the million dollar present value of a zoo animal rather than the minimum wage employees that feed them.

Aspects of my life are worthy of Neil Simon ...

How to Lie with Maps

I give a middling recommendation to Mark Monmonier's book:

Maybe it's just me. I do know a lot about maps and mapmaking, and perhaps that is why this book didn't reach out and grab me.

The topic is certainly interesting: maps are abstractions that are often misleading. It's the delivery that is a problem.

I found that I knew a lot of what was being discussed. This was not like setting out to read one of Edward Tufte's books and thinking that you knew this already and finding out quickly that you didn't. I found very few surprises in Monmonier.

I also didn't find the presentation very enlightening: I found the figures difficult to read, and the discussion in the text about them to be somewhat uninformative.

The bottom line is that I don't know a better book in this area, and it's not bad or painful by any means. I just wouldn't run out and buy it for curiousity sake.

N.B. Apparently someone must like this book, since it is in a second edition.

Book Review: A Revolution In Arms

I read some of Joseph G. Bilby's A Revolution In Arms: A History of the First Repeating Rifles.

The first chapter was fascinating: everything you ever wanted to know about the first 30,000 years of humans using projectiles to kill things.

After that, I got bored, and stopped after a few chapters.

It's a very good book, but the area is not one that I need that much detail in. For someone who is interested, I think this is something you should just order right now.

The book is the story of how guns that could fire more than once at a time were developed. A repeating rifle (or carbine) is a rifle that loads from the breech (close to the user), and that has a magazine from which shells can be loaded more or less automatically. It isn't a machine gun, but it's a potent killing machine.

There was a lot of work that had to go in to making all the parts work together. This is where I got lost: I just don't know enough about how guns work to make this worthwhile.

As an added bonus for Civil War aficionados, all of this came together shortly before and during the war, so there are many chapter devoted to individual battles and people.

Vacation

Off to Park City for some R&R: hotel pool, alpine slide, zoo, planetarium, dinosaur museum, eating at places that don't specialize in tacos, egg rolls, burgers or pizza.

Don't expect any current events coverage ...

Big Love

The second season of Big Love premiered this week. Two observations:

• Cedar City got mentioned in the show - as a hideout for a polygamist on the run. The street address is fictional, but this one is lifted from the headlines. They almost cornered Warren Jeffs down by one of my favorite restaurants a few years ago, and also almost got him in Beryl (about 30 miles west of here) as well.
• For the most part, the show continued to present Mormons (who are not practicing polygamy) badly. Unlike last year, non-Mormons weren't invisible in this small screen version of Utah. One scene featured a group of ex-Mormons meeting in what looked like a Catholic Church. You couldn't really tell anyone's denomination, but in any event it wasn't a positively portrayed group.

Jerry Weintraub

Went to see Ocean's Thirteen (worth it).

There was a high roller in the movie who I couldn't place. I mentioned it to the vXwife who said "that's Jerry Weintraub" ... everyone knows who he is (but me) ... he's a producer.

Oh.

Well ... that wasn't where I knew him from. It took me a while, but I know him a Jilly from Philly: the gangster mentor of Nick Papageorgieu in Vegas Vacation.