"The world is very complicated..."

a plethora of ironing boards at the thrift store...ironing is become less popular than it was

but i do have an ironing board story from when ironing was much more "required" in polite society...i think i was in the third grade of elementary school...there was a dis-agreement between the household ironer (mama) and the wearer of ironed shirts (daddy)...both of these folks were somewhat disfunctional in their relationship...mama decided she did not want the job of "chief groom" anymore and put the ironing board into the 1956 pontiac with the 4 kids and headed out to her mamas house in michigan...a long way from south louisiana...we almost made it...but the motor burnt up somewhere in indiana...and her mother had to send her husband down to get us...we did not bring the ironing board...this behavior was a precursor to what was to eventually to be diagnosed as manic etc. etc. etc...mental health issues were poorly understood then as now...anyhow, ironed clothes still kind of ruffle me even today...

had to hunker down in a rather populated spot for the last 3 days waiting out the rain...good long life-giving rain...the phone reception was excellent...the neighbor ahead of me was...shall we say...determined...he spent 3 hours describing his life as a...what the hell was he? he said he had to "belly crawl" into north korea to do assasinations and he was good friends with fidel castro and he single-handed his 65 foot choi lee sailboat to a lot of spots...and on and on and on...the last fellow who i encountered in my campsite said he was drafted into the army in 1968 and he showed me a photo of himself with a hat that said ARMY... damn!...he said he had climbed mount kilamonjaro...etc.etc etc...maybe i should take it all with a grain...a very large grain of salt...

i am currently under surveillance due to my being a suspect...i am sure the crimes are serious and far be it from me to make light of such serious crimes...whatever they are...i think Kafka wrote about this situation...police types doing police type undercover type intimidation type stuff...reserved for persons who are suspected of doing criminal stuff...

well besides being a suspect i also watched some intellectually stimulating youtube presentations....one of the better ones is "A society with no purpose beyond money"(45 min) about the philosophy of Max Horkheimer....also "How the language you speak changes how you see the world" (16 min) this is an interview with Lera Buroditsky @ the institute of art and ideas...this woman was born in russia and teaches in san diego now...since she left russia at age 12 she spoke two languages and she explains how this lead to her interest in languages...she wants to learn the language of the indigeonous people of southern california....what with all the computer programing going on now i wonder if the "language' a computer program is written in has any bearing on what it can do...there is an interesting view of "life in russia"in "Typical family apartment tour" (how russians really live) 19 min....

new monkey species in the congo...a colobus species....and "Exploring the alien insects of the amazon river" has some great video of mainly treehoppers...(44min) @all out wildlife...

well according to the weather report on WWOZ radio from New Orleans the heat index will be about 118 degrees during the day...that will kill you...

on sept. 25, 1926 henry ford adopted an 8 hour day and a 5 day week for his factory workers....100 years ago...and in 1946 the supreme court ruled that it was not required for a person who applied for citizenship to swear to a willingness to take up arms...april 22 1946...

"The world is very complicated and there is an infinite set of things we can potentially pay attention to and our ability to process that information is quite limited..." Lera Buroditsky
 

"Soul ,take they risk..."

what would this plant be worth on Mars?...nature heals the mind...

 getting in the last of my blogger therapy...need more nature therapy now and some guitar plucking therapy and music therapy...watching Dave Mason sing his song"We just disagree"...good medicine...also watched "Everyday People" on Playing for change...these folks have put together some great videos from musicians around the world...also watched Colt Clark and family newest video "Sultans of Swing'...pretty ambitious to try out M. Knoflers guitar but mr cash pulls it off...i predict that Ms. B. will soon start belting out some lyrics...move over and give the girl a chance mr clark....

i looked at another 20 minutes or so of what E.musk et al have to say on twitter...decided lack of variety...so far it seems that all the tasks assigned to AI deal with perfect replicas of roulette tables, driving people to places they may or may not need to go and things that really seem unimportant and even banal...cantaloupes never get mentioned...you can eat cantaloupes....they taste good...the important things in life are alive...a few minutes ago the computer asked me if i was looking for salad recipes...unprompted...is it rude to not respond?...for the first time last week i asked the phone where my appointment with the doctor was..."turn left here into the parking lot"...wrong parking lot!...i have decided the answers are not as important as the questions.

"Soul, take thy risk/ With Death to be/We're better than be not with thee."----Emily Dickenson 
 

"Livin' easy..."

the top image is from a chapter in a book called "Gone Primative-Savage Intellects, Modern Lives by Marianna Torgovnick....the bottom image is the cover of a dust jacket on the 1955 3rd edition of a book by Sir John Woodroffe "Studies in the Mantra-Shastra

i have seen the "what elon musk said today on X" from yesterday i think...the launch of the space x rocket was aborted at the last seconds...live and learn...one of the major topics...THE major topic! on this site is about artificial intelligence...and the future value of said technology...i came across a small book called "the hidden lives and strange origins of common and not so common words" by Anu Garg...the word GROK is defined as "to understand something thoroughly and intuitively"...and NO! i do not want to subsidize his sisters $10 pickle!...i was listening to a C-SPAN program this morning and there was a caller...an elderly fellow who was in a panic about data centers being built which caused the cattle to have no babies and the birds to quit singing and other devilish things...the single most disturbing thing i am seeing in all of the evaluations of the world and society and everything under the sun is the extent to which people lump everyone together...there are 8 billion people on earth...give or take...and folks have the habit of saying humanity this and humanity that and humanity the other thing...this is especially obvious in political commentary...liberals this and conservatives that and women this and men that and it never ends...humans and human experiences are varied and complex...AND humans have the capacity to change their minds...which brings me to the youtube presentaion "10 ancient drug epidemics which erased entire civilizations"@ health with Henry (50 min) this title is misleading as there were no civilizations which were erased...the last part is especially interesting as it deals with the idea that alcohol consumption drove humans to settle in one spot to brew beer thousands of years before there was agriculture for food consumption...you make up your own mind about whether humanity is driven by the need to get a buzz...also i found a great interview @steveioe... "ER nurse shares her wildest stories"(37 min)...this woman is an emergency room nurse in a hospital on the Mississippi gulf coast...she is young and strong...and recounts how many dumb ass moves people can make to endanger their own lives...it makes me cynical about how much energy is put into saving people who perhaps should not be saved...on "soft white underbelly" there is an interview with a prison psych doctor who obviously has PTSD and she recounts how much time and expense is given to stopping a prisoner who wants to cut off his penis...there are people who can and will reform their behaviors and these should be afforded the opportunity to do so...the rest are using valuable resources which could be better utilized elsewhere...humanity needs to understand the meaning of triage...testosterone is in the news recently...i can speak with some authority on this subject...having had much testosterone and then having little testosterone...i think it would better serve humanity to have more men with less testosterone...especially in prison!...better living through chemistry!...i recently paid off a medical bill after 3 years and asked for an itemized account of said bill and was saddened but not surprised when i saw that i was charged for 6 injections of leuprolide acetate at more than $1000 per injection when i had only been given one injection of this drug...not surprisingly the medical mafia has completely taken over health care and the multi-trillion dollar ripoff continues without anyone in government getting off their lazy overpaid butts to address these scams...

I've been listening to a lot of Rita Payes (trombone and vocals) and Andrea Motis (trumpet and vocals) both from spain and excellent jazz musicians...

"Livin' easy livin' free/ Season ticket on a one way ride....Bon Scott 

 

"Trust through total transparency.."

ancient tin cup found near campsite...better rusty cup than plastic cup

made my way to the radiology unit to have sinuses imaged...fast efficient and professional...

i must confess to perusing yet another thrift store or two...i have concluded after half a century or more of shopping thrift stores that perhaps my reasoning was a bit flawed...as a small child i used to sit with my siblings looking at a sears catalogue which was between us and play "look what i got!"...seemed pretty harmless at the time...however as most compulsive/addictive behaviors seem to be rooted in some experiences from ones past i imagine that being in a household with a dearth of money and therefore a dearth of possessions established the idea that more stuff was more better...i met a couple of men who as children faced near starvation as children  during WW2...these men were both quite fat due to the uncontrolable urge to eat...however if you are interested in compulsive behavior modification HubermanLab has a great youtube presentation "the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder" (OCD)(32min)...

where was i?...oh yes i have decided that "collecting" only exacerbates my OCD tendencies so i have determined that the only thing worth "collecting" is ideas...it has been said (i think in buddhism) that the only thing a person owns is their "deeds"...whoa buddy!...that's a lot of heavy lifting...i did pick up a very nice pair of Steiner 12X40 binoculars for $10 at the thrift today but not for collecting...

ok lets get down to the "nut cuttin'"...i often read "what elon musk said today on twitter" which is very revealing...i like Mr. Musk but i think his evaluation of certain aspects of his relationship to the environment is flawed...he suffers from "nature deficit disorder"...and going into space will probably make it much much worse...throughout the history of humanity Homo sapians et. al. have oriented themselves by comparison to the nature that surrounded them...more and more of humanity have less and less nature to relate to...i think this makes humans too "machine-like"...but i spent so much time in the zoo business i became imbued with a respect, even a reverence for nature...BUT i came to realize that the animals i encountered in the zoos were separated from the environment in which they evolved...therefore they were other than what their species had evolved into over many millions of years...soooo for someone to say that more people is more better strikes me as being oblivious to the inevitable result...which is more people equals less nature...and more "machines"....now i am only a wheelbarrow and shovel guy...but my orientation to the planet on which i live includes all the plants, animals and "undecided" entities. i do however applaude the musk ethos that self driving vehicles would  make humans lives better...perhaps there will be an opportunity to obtain a musk financed used EV...recycle or die Elon!...

"Trust through total transparency is the only thing that should be believed."   ELON MUSK

"I've watched the summer evening pass by..."

birthday morning...72 years behind me...one day at a time ahead of me

 
 the mon-sooner or later has been a bit less than generous with the precipitation...

i am not a person who feels that "the public" has any right or expectation to be protected from the truth...this youtube presentation is pretty abrupt...."North America is Heating Up"@ Climate Emergency Forum (30 min)...

had to move due to road construction which is soon to begin...the spot i moved to is the same place where i found the yellow ants and the orange fox...not a bad spot but a steady stream of vehicles is often present..

the first day several raucus  ravens came to see me and i think it was the family i befriended a couple of years ago... truly lovely creatures...

the reception on the phone was pretty intermittant so i watched some of the movies i have on a mini-SD...and read some articles in my periodicals...

i was pleased that my "aroma" (stink) became apparent to me after several months of no olfactory awareness...perhaps it was the prednisone which made my smell ability re-appear...i also experienced extreme headaches for reasons un-known...i decided it might be my water supply as some of the water in my gallon jugs was several months old...i trashed the old bottles and bought new water for $1.37 a gallon...i have not had headaches since i changed my water source...

as i try to look objectively at my life i realize that an insurance actuarial table can accurately predict my longevity...never imagined myself at 72 years...life is good...but not forever...

"I've watched the summer evening pass by                                           I've heard the rattle in my bronchi                                                        Someday I'll have a disappearing hairline                                               Someday I'll wear pajamas in the daytime...                                            from Crash test dummies song"Afternoons and Coffeespoons"

"When you deal with irrational animals..."

even the least of these seeks a drink of refreshing water

i'm gonna be negative now, so as to get it out of my system before it poisons my mind...as i sit here watching "journalist discuss shifting media impact on black communities" it occurs to me that there is not "white" people represented...durn their scurvy white butts...as soon as i heard the ghost of Emmit Till i knew it was going to be a "black blather fest" when one of the participants brought up how her ancestors was snatched up from mother africa and brought to the new world in chains it occured to me that the black african tribal chiefs who enriched themselves by selling other blacks into slavery never get brought up...there are some very good youtube presentations about the genetic makeup of about every human population...the so called "black irish" it seems have a different genotype than the red heads..humans all the way back to denisovans and neanderthals have genetic markers which the rapidly growing field of genetics is analysing...sorry no reparations coming from them either...if you spend too much time walking backwards you are going so stumble...i am aware of an increasing amount of "radicalized" views on the internet...from every spectrum of society...as resources become smaller and the population of humans becomes larger the rationalization for extreme responces will increase....the example of the entire globe changing when the covid pandemic was at its height should be an example of how humans have it in their power to save themselves...but instead we have resigned ourselves to playing games and destroying the atmosphere in the process....how many sporting events were played and how many people attended them in the last year?...oh well...

"When you deal with irrational animals, with things and circumstances, be generous and straightforward. You are rational and they are not. When you deal with fellow human beings, behave as one. They share in the LOGOS. And invoke the gods regardless.          Don't worry about how long you will go on doing this.                           A single afternoon would be enough.    MARCUS AURELIUS 

"NIGHTMARES..."

image above is a kaibab squirrel drinking from the water pan 

4th of july and the USA is solid as a rock...top image is of a fresh fungi growth on top of pine stump

sooo...had to come into town for more medical "consultation"...the forest was very nice and since i put out the water pan, which is actually a "charger" or large serving tray...4 bucks at the thrift and made of thick stainless steel with brass handles at both ends...only an inch deep so the small birds love it...a couple of least chipmunks also sipped from it several times a day...with the air temperature being much higher than in the past the creatures are going to need some help...i forget if the chipmunks here estivate when the temps get this high...going to get hotter than this!

i looked up the 3 people who died in the Snyder fire on the colorado/utah border...i almost burst into tears when i saw these very young people...EMILY BARKER...SYDNEY WATSON...NICK HUTCHERSON...HEROS!....a told a couple of federals that people who start forest fires should be shot on sight...enough of that...

   some of the better youtube i watched lately is "Anthony Kaldellis-Roman Empire etc..."(4 hours)...lex fridman podcast #498...Dr. Fridmans' genius is in asking brilliant questions...of course it is inevitable that one attempts to see if the trials and tribulations of past cultures are indications of what the present situation might have in store ...i think that the technological developments of today make society differently poised to act and react...however human nature has not changed...and Dr, Andrew Huberman has a good interview with Ido Portal who is a philosophical body dynamics expert "Movement practice to strengthen your body-mind connection"(3 hours)...Dr, Huberman brings up his participation in skateboarding in his younger days and how adept some of the practitioners of this fairly new sport are.   But i have to get my daily dose of laughter so i watched "Fern Brady" an Irish woman with a...rather harsh view of life...but funny...i also thought i might sign up with a dating service so i have been watching "Smack The Pony dating Agency" to get some tips (or not)...since i feel better when things are being improved rather than being made worse i like to watch Cobbler G (mr Gibson) whose latest challenge is a pair of boots infested with spider webs and various insect carcasses...one of of of the things i marvel at is how resilient leather is...this cobbler with an an attitude takes an ancient craft to new levels...also i always watch  the latest "Girl with Dogs" who has groomed a lot of cats recently...to watch this lady with endless compassion take a dog covered with matted hair and transform it into a regal beast once again brings joy to my heart...also i was impressed with Ms 'Itchy Boots" recovery from near disaster when her Yamaha motorcycle was close to being washed away in a river in Mongolia...(season 8 episode 139)..this woman is tough!...i always save "Little Chinese Everywhere" with Yan for sunday morning when i have my mug of coffee and pastry while i watch this ladies travels...she has bought a new drone which she flies with a VR headset...nice work...and since socialism has been in the news much lately i looked up some explanations about this  form of government.."Social Democracy VS Democratic Socialism explained easy" (4min)...the problem with this and most political discussions is that politics like religions are  very fluid concepts and practices...they do not exist in a pure state...and i look at music videos in the evening before i slumber (usually between 8 an 9 pm)...BOPFLIX has a thousand videos to peruse...

 

",,,nightmares are dreams too!..." Jesse Welles