Trego's Mountain Ear

Last Monday, I read that gold hit a new high at $2,135 per troy ounce.  Back when Nixon was a president (his early years) it was $35.  In 1792, the US government set the value at $19.75 per ounce.  That changed to $20.67 in 1834, then a century later to $35 under Franklin Roosevelt.  Nixon, Read more

I read that the nation is down to a single Arizona survivor – Lou Conter, age 102, retired Lieutenant Commander, but enlisted Quartermaster  3rd class on December 7, 1941. (A Navy Quartermaster should not be confused with the same title in the Army – in the Navy, the Quartermaster work the bridge, actually helmsman and Read more

The Tax Foundation has an article at State and Local Tax Burdens, Calendar Year 2022 that shows Montana at 27th place on state and local taxes.  I’m not certain that it’s a good thing to be above the mean when it comes to paying taxes – but they illustrate the article with this map: An Read more

As December begins, and thoughts turn to cat-proofing (if such a thing is possible) the Christmas decorations, I am reminded of a bit of Icelandic folklore. The Yule Cat, Jólakötturinn, is a giant cat very invested in whether or not folks are wearing new clothes for Christmas. While it’s not clear whether the individuals without Read more

I’ve been looking at Trego School and how the school is funded. The state school levy is 95 mills. Then there’s a 6 mill levy for the university system. County-wide education gets another 23.7 mills. The high school gets 22.42 mills – and Trego school levies 40.87 mills. The local board has input into 22 Read more

AI and machine learning are improving weather forecasts, but they won’t replace human experts Russ Schumacher, Colorado State University and Aaron Hill, Colorado State University A century ago, English mathematician Lewis Fry Richardson proposed a startling idea for that time: constructing a systematic process based on math for predicting the weather. In his 1922 book, “Weather Read more