Need some book suggestions? Here is a complete listing of Pournelle’s book of the month suggestions going back to 1994.

The Ohio Farm Bureau announced that the USDA Rural Development grant awards have gone to six recipients, in the following states: Arkansas, Iowa (two awards), Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Center for Disease Control reports that Type 2 diabetes has increased 90% in the U.S. since 1997. Data was complete for 33 states. Vermont is 28th in the list with a reported 6.6 new cases per one thousand residents. This is an increase of 43%.

Gasoline prices are in free fall; we’re paying about $2.89 a gallon. Maybe this accounts for the fact that people are idling their cars again at the post office. Now that the weather has turned colder (we’ve gotten the first snow that stuck), my old Prius’ mpg has gone down to 49-50, down from 52-56.

I’ve been experimenting with a white noise generator called Noisy as a way to mask distracting sounds. It is rather like working next to a waterfall, or under a tin roof while raining. Here’s a Wiki article, with all the math. An online flash version is located at simplynoise.com The online generator includes “red noise” which seems to increase the low frequency component. They also have audio files which can be downloaded and played through iTunes or Windows Media Player.