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Ideas

Selling Out

Droning about Drones

Last week I had the brilliant idea to uses drones to wash windows in high rise buildings. The idea came to me because we live in a high rise building and washing the outside windows is complicated and dangerous. Men on platforms with ropes and pulleys maneuver to get to the windows. At the same time the news is full of “drones at war” stories. I made the connection and got excited until I searched Google and found out that there are lots of companies… Read More »Droning about Drones

Placebos

My Brother Tom sent me a link to an Australian web site that purports to sell placebos.http://www.placebo.com.au/What a great business idea but not what we are talking about today.The discussion of the Placebo Effect on the web site got us thinking about other placebos.  The ones that aren’t pills but that make us feel better without any measurable or scientific reason.One of them is beauty. We feel better, happier or more joyful in the presence of beautiful things.Another thing that gives a placebo effect is… Read More »Placebos

Tradition

“Tradition is really peer pressure from dead people.“ Thanks to Anthony R for this excellent recast of an old saw. This is the last of the Inukshuk photos for now. Again it is from the wild area of Granada Park. Perhaps March will be the sunset month.

As Good as Gold

For an artist or a craftsman gold is a risky material in which to seek eternal fame. Gold is not just an artists medium it is also a store of wealth and during hard times it tends to get melted down no matter how beautifully it is sculpted. A surviving piece of the Hapsburg gold in Vienna. If you are seeking eternal fame, stone is a better medium. It has very little value outside the sculpture and is more durable than paintings. However a good… Read More »As Good as Gold

Election Day Should be a Day

There are a couple of reasons I think that early voting is a bad idea. If during the Civil War when Lincoln was running for re-election there had been early voting people would have voted before the victory at Atlanta and McClellan might have won the Presidency. So my first objection is that we should all be voting at the same time so we all have access to the same information. My second objection is that everyone voting together is one of the tiny and… Read More »Election Day Should be a Day

Thoughtful Speculation

“Thoughtful speculation“ I have run into this phrase several times this summer and thought it was worthy of a blog post. The context was in book reviews where the author did not have all the facts but could see a trend line or an implication. For instance near the mound at Pueblo Grande Museum there are the remains of a ball court. In fact ball court remains have been found throughout the Phoenix area. Thoughtful speculation would lead one to the conclusion that there was… Read More »Thoughtful Speculation

Uncertainty

“Uncertainty is one of the ingredients necessary to make a trip an adventure.” If everything is organized then you are on a trip. In an adventure there is uncertainty. But uncertainty is not enough. There is uncertainty in the outcome of a soccer match but that does not make it into an adventure. The puzzle continues.

Routine

“Routine is good, but if you want to stay young, try something new every day.” From The Quotable Stoic by Michael Lipsey. The water lily photo is from the Missouri Botanical Garden again.

Wine and Life

Life is goodWine is goodLife is short and you only get oneWine is plentifulSo is wine better than life? In Bordeaux in August I took a lot of photos of grapes. This is the best one.

Depletion

The copper mine in Bisbee Arizona closed when all of the easily obtainable ore was mined. Nobody much cared. The miners moved on and a future Ghost Town was created. The Oyster fleet in the Chesapeake used draggers to catch most of the easily obtainable oysters and the area and the nation went into a paroxysm of worries and “solutions” to the problem. Why is one a problem and the other an event. My friend, Mark V, introduced trees as another resource that we attempt… Read More »Depletion

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