predictive photos on Flickr

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Day 294

Collieston Bay - Aberdeen Scotland - 16/3/2018 by DanoAberdeen

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Weather reports predict the so called "Beast From The East" is due to revisit the UK over the next few days, today the 16th of March 2018 I visited Collieston Bay, its the first time I have witnessed the impact unusual weather has had on the area, it really was exhilarating and offered great photo opportunities.

Collieston is a small former fishing village on the North Sea coast in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The village lies just north of the Sands of Forvie Special Protection Area, between Cruden Bay and Newburgh.

The earliest recorded history of Collieston is of the arrival of St Ternan, a Columban monk on a mission to convert the local picts to Christianity. There is, however, evidence that people lived here during much earlier times.

Collieston was established as a fishing village by the 16th century, and it provides the first safe harbour in over fifteen miles of beachesand dunes stretching north from Aberdeen.

Fishing for herring, haddock, whiting and codflourished in the 17th century and 18th century and was the foundation of Collieston's economy. The village became known for 'Collieston Speldings', salted and sun-dried haddock and whiting, a popular delicacy throughout Britain. As drift netting developed during the mid 19th century, the fishing began to decline and the focus of the industry shifted to places like Peterhead because the harbour at Collieston was too small to safely accommodate the larger boats needed.

The numerous sea caves in the nearby cliffs, and small coves with shingle beaches provided ideal terrain for smugglers. In the late 18th century it was estimated by the Excise that up to 8000 gallons of foreign spirits were being illegally landed in the area every month. In 1798, the notorious village smuggler, Phillip Kennedy, was killed by a blow from an exciseman's cutlass. His grave and tombstone still stands in the village graveyard.

A ship from the Spanish Armada, the Santa Caterina, carrying arms for the Earl of Erroll is said to have sunk just off the rocky point of St Catherine's Dub in 1594. In retaliation for the Earl's involvement in the Catholic plot against him, James VI blew up the Earl's castle which stood on the cliffs, a mile north of Collieston. The Earl went on to rebuild Slains Castle, six miles further up the coast, in 1597.

Collieston is now mainly a commuter village serving Aberdeen, and is largely given over to tourists during the summer months.

G20 Summit, London, G20 London, G20 Protests, G20 DemonstrationsG20 Summit, London, G20 London, G20 Protests, G20 Demonstrations by G20London2009

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For great photographs and the low down on the G20 Summit, Protests and Demonstrations visit www.ravishlondon.com/g20

The world faces a problem: recession and a spiraling fall in trade. The Economist puts it like this, “Trade is contracting again, at a rate unmatched in the post-war period. This week the World Trade Organisation (WTO) predicted that the volume of global merchandise trade would shrink by 9% this year. This will be the first fall in trade flows since 1982. Between 1990 and 2006 trade volumes grew by more than 6% a year, easily outstripping the growth rate of world output, which was about 3% (see chart 1). Now the global economic machine has gone into reverse: output is declining and trade is tumbling at a faster pace. The turmoil has shaken commerce in goods of all sorts, bought and sold by rich and poor countries alike.” According to the Economist, “The immediate cause of shrinking trade is plain: global recession means a collapse in demand. The credit crunch adds an additional squeeze, thanks to an estimated shortfall of $100 billion in trade finance, which lubricates 90% of world trade.”

According to the Guardian, “On Thursday 2 April Gordon Brown is going to host the G20 summit in London. Leaders from 22 countries will be at the summit. The G20 is an organisation for finance ministers and central bankers, who in the past met once a year to discuss international cooperation in finance. There are 19 countries who are members: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The 20th member is the European Union, which is represented by whichever country holds the EU presidency (currently, it's the Czech Republic). These countries represent 90% of global GDP, 80% of world trade and two thirds of the world's population. The IMF and the World Bank also attend G20 meetings, although technically the London event isn't a normal G20 meeting.”

This G20 meeting will be for the leaders of all G20 countries. According to the Guardian the policy agenda developed by the last G20 meeting “did not in fact go much beyond pre-existing international initiatives that had recently been developed in more technocratic international bodies.” According to the Guardian, “On the London summit website, the British government has explained what it hopes to achieve. At the summit, countries need to come together to enhance global coordination in order to help restore global economic growth. World leaders must make three commitments:

• First, to take whatever action is necessary to stabilise financial markets and enable families and businesses to get through the recession.

• Second, to reform and strengthen the global financial and economic system to restore confidence and trust.

• Third, to put the global economy on track for sustainable growth.

Gordon Brown has argued that the world must avoid protectionism. According to the Economist, “The World Bank says that, since the G20 leaders last met in November in Washington, DC, 17 of their countries have restricted trade. Some have raised tariffs, as Russia did on second-hand cars and India did on steel. Citing safety, China has banned imports of Irish pork and Italian brandy. Across the world, there has been a surge in actions against “dumping”—the sale of exports, supposedly at a loss, in order to undermine the competition. Governments everywhere are favouring locally made goods.” The Economist also says, “Kei-Mu Yi, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, argues that trade has fallen so fast and so uniformly around the world largely because of the rise of “vertical specialisation”, or global supply chains. This contributed to trade’s rapid expansion in recent decades. Now it is adding to the rate of shrinkage. When David Ricardo argued in the early 19th century that comparative advantage was the basis of trade, he conceived of countries specialising in products, like wine or cloth. But Mr Yi points out that countries now specialise not so much in final products as in steps in the process of production.”

Protectionism in itself sounds bad – but it is a policy option available and used in all political economies – including the most liberal. Protectionism can also lead to a more self-sustainable economy, and can lead to the internal development of an economy, which means the economy is less reliant and dependent on external sources of finance. Development will be slower, but it can be more secure and sustainable. It is likely that if countries do operate protectionist policies it will be a short-term opportunist and populist response to workers and unions, but it could be seen as an alternative economic model of development. It worked in Brazil and Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s for a while, until a more neo-liberal and external finance model was preferred.

The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was reported on Channel 4 News to have told Mr Brown the crisis was caused by "white blue eyed people". This overtly racist remark has been noted, but there has been no visible backlash. It is interesting how the whole agenda about racism never applies to the dominant one, i.e. you can racially slur white people, and white people with blue eyes without anyone batting an eye lid, whereas if you racially slur other ethnic groups you can find yourself battered. I find this state of affairs deeply offensive to the human race in general, and very patronizing to those groups who don’t come from the dominant ethnic group (i.e. its almost to say the whole anti-racist thing is a way of patting you on the head and saying there, there – because when it comes to racism we don’t really give a shit – see the way we couldn’t give a f*** if you slur our own dominant white ethnic group).

The reality is that the summit will represent a reshuffling of position, support and dependencies between the world’s twenty richest countries. Spectators are expecting China to come out feeling puffed up and proud, given that China has faired relatively in recent years, or so we are led to believe. Meanwhile national demonstrations seem to be focusing our attention to the fact that a different way of working is needed. In fact it will be work as usual – the question is who will come out on top.

In anticipation of the G20 summit a demonstration was held in London. 10,000 were predicted to attend the demonstrations. The police reported 35,000. I was there at the demonstration and I don’t believe I saw 35,000 people walk past Big Ben – and I saw it from start to finish. As one commentator, on the Guardian observed, “Apart from the small contingent of student SWP calling 'One solution, Revolution' and about 20 anarchists making noise the spirit was generally depressed and lacking any anger or sense of direction.” Cognitator joked, “Perhaps the police were adding their number to the protesters. As opposed to taking them away as per usual.”

According to the Guardian, “The Put People First march yesterday was organised by a collaboration of more than 100 trade unions, church groups and charities including ActionAid, Save the Children and Friends of the Earth. The theme was "jobs, justice and climate" and the message was aimed at the world leaders who will be gathering for the G20 summit here this week.”

The march started on the Embankment. When I arrived there I walked around desperately finding somewhere where I could have a piss for free. I tried Starbucks and Costa Cofee, but they seemed to have no toilets, I even tried the stamp collectors fayre a subterranean culture of badly dressed old people, with poor eyesight and even worse posture, which was momentary distraction from my full bladder, but which did not provide the answer to my pressing problem as the toilet door was locked and for staff only. Stephen Moss writing for the Guardian said, “Westminster is not a great place for someone like me, who has a weak bladder, to go on a march. The public loos there cost an outrageous 50p a go. The Socialist Worker magazine-seller next to Embankment tube station is on to this in a flash. "50p to have a piss – a lesson in capitalism," he is soon shouting. Later, I'm pleased to see someone has punched a hole in the wooden sign advertising the price.” In the end I walked all the way to the National Portrait Gallery where you can always be assured a good quality toilet seat.

The Guardian continued, “The marchers, estimated at 35,000 by police, accompanied by brass bands and drummers and a colourful assortment of banners and flags, walked the four miles from Embankment to Hyde Park, where speeches from comedian Mark Thomas and environmental campaigner Tony Juniper, and music from the Kooks, made for a party-like atmosphere.”

The Guardian reported, “A group of fewer than 200 anarchists joined the march and were kept isolated and surrounded by police. Chants of "Burn the bankers!" were the closest anyone came to any show of aggression.’ Yes I witnessed this, it was clear that the anarchists, dressed in black, some of them with scarves covering their faces, generally looked cool as fuck, like some post-nuclear vigilante gang, their black signifying the dark depressing reality from which humanity starts, and the point from which they wish to depart. Whether the police presence was heavy is debatable but they certainly had a line of police accompanying them, whereas no other group were honored with such a presence. Of the anarchists Stephen Moss says, “I fall in with some anarchists halfway through the march – a delightful young Greek called Alex and an Italian, who is happy to talk about Bakunin, but is, I sense, a little suspicious of me. The anarchists march together – with the police flanking them in a way they don't with the rest of the march – and I am intrigued that they never shout slogans or bang drums. Their mission is a serious one.” Moss goes on, “Alex tells me a reporter from the Sunday Times has already approached him to ask why anarchists wear masks. "Work it out for yourself – you're a journalist," he'd told him. "People always ask why we wear masks; they never ask about our ideology," he complains. In essence, that ideology is: power corrupts; all elites will be corrupt; so government should be by the people, for the people – a mass movement of the type they claim is emerging in South America. Hezbollah is also mentioned favourably, a movement they see as developing organically. "Organic" is a key word for anarchists, and it would save a lot of aggro and bad press if they were called organicists rather than anarchists.” Good point. But who wants to be called an organicist? And in any case everything is organic really – its just that some organisms develop in a way we or anarchists done like and some do. To call anarchists, organic is to miss the point, anarachists are like Christian, they dream of a reality which transcends human nature as it is and known. Structure, corruption, self-interest and greed underpin all human activity – the question is not how we can do away with it, but how can we manage it in a fair way.

Stephen Moss wrote about the variety of organizations on the march. He said, “Socialist Worker has a three-point strategy: "Seize their wealth," "Stamp out poverty," "End all wars." Sounds good, but I can't work out exactly who "their" refers to. The Socialist party is hot on slogans, colder on the mechanism by which they are put into practice. The likely outcome to the current crisis still appears to be government by Etonians.” Most of these movements are nothing to do with instituting political change. The people involved in them do not want to genuinely change things. Instead what these groups function as is self-help groups for people, for whatever reason, feel that they have been wronged in life, probably at a personal level, and feeling quite hopeless about their personal wrongs, they want to transpose their personal woe on to a faceless, unintelligible other – the government, the state, the capitalist, the rich and the greedy. Its not so much that socialist workers and anarchists want to change things, they know they are completely ineffectual, and too screwed up and traumatized, too aggressive, unintelligent and incapable of engaging people into a different way of organizing; they just want to shout out to people ‘we hurt’. Fair enough.

The TUC don’t seem to be turning up to do anything more than saying ‘there there’ to threatened workers, and stating the downright bloody obvious to the government. Their message is “The importance of this summit cannot be underestimated. Unemployment and deprivation will grow massively over the next two years unless governments work together. People need to know that there is an international solution to this crisis. If the summit suggests that there is not, many will turn to nationalist and protectionist politics with all that implies for the global economy and world peace.” Mind you they do go on to say that, “But while the immediate response to the crisis will be at the forefront of the leaders' minds, the unprecedented Put People First coalition shows there is a huge appetite for a new economic direction. Thirty years of the increasing dominance of the neo-liberal agenda has got us into this mess. The summit must show that the next 30 years need to be about a renewed era of economic growth based on a much fairer share of the proceeds. One that is environmentally sustainable and one that does not end in the burst of yet another financial bubble.” But what are they really saying? Nothing much.

There is of course something about how all of this is just about having a laugh, getting a kick, getting an emotional fix. There’s something very similar to the way that some of the more violent groups get ready for a rumble with the police and football hooliganism. Football hooligans are much more honest about the emotional kick they get from fighting. The protestors pretend that they are doing it for the people. Whatever the so called reasons, it is clear that a lot of protestors enjoy confrontation. They are much more focused on the enemy and combating the enemy than they are on creating peaceful societies. So Stephen Moss makes the interesting observation, “When the march eventually gets to Hyde Park, the anarchists refuse to join the "TUC bureaucrats" for the official rally and hold their own open-platform meeting at Speakers' Corner, dominated by elderly men in hats who talk less about Bakunin than about beating up the BNP and confronting the police on the streets of Whitechapel. It's all a bit depressing (and expletive-filled – I take serious exception to the denunciation of "Oxbridge cunts"), though I like the fact that the elderly men refuse even to use a megaphone – only the ordinary human voice is organic enough.” The media and police have both hyped the April 2009 marches as like the possible end of the British way of life, of democracy, of capitalism. Nothing could be further from the truth, but its like we all want to will it to happen – we all are looking for excitement – war may be bad but peace is fucking boring – I once read.

The Guardian also reported, “Thomas told the Observer he believed the protest marked "the start of a grassroots movement". He added: "This is a moment. This is the first time people have had a chance to come out on to the streets in a big way." But this is nonsense. This was just an opportunity for a plethora of groups, amongst whom there are more differences, and the only thing that can unite them is a general concern for jobs, justice and climate, which incidentally are three themes that unite most of the country, and all the main political parties, to catch the government at a weak moment, and hope to build up support for whatever cause they have, on the back of the anger and desperation amongst people at this time.

The protest ended up in Hyde Park. I didn’t go, it was too cold and rainy, and although I did aim to walk there via a short-cut through Victoria, I ended up taking refuge in Westminster Cathedral, where I saw another procession, of Catholic priests and altar boys, who were holding a service for the Union of Catholic Mothers. I listened to the Catholic priests, they sounded much more happy and at peace with themselves and their surroundings, than the rankerous socialist bile spitting leaders.

People are blaming the bankers, but there is in actual fact no-one to blame for this. The this needs to be qualified too. The ‘this’ is the fact that people are loosing their jobs, consumption will have to be reduced. It is ironic that it is precisely that people are facing the prospect of lower consumption that they are out on the streets protesting against greedy bankers, it is not so much the greed of the bankers that people resent, so much as the increased consuming power of the bankers that they are envious of. The bankers are not to blame for working within a system, which promoted risky investments, a system which was encouraged and deregulated by politicians who realized that whilst the bubble was growing there were huge financial gains to be made from encouraging bankers to reap the rewards both for themselves but through the state through taxation, and politicians who were encouraged by the people who voted them in, who probably formed the majority of people marching in demonstration and protest today, who voted in the governments believing the deregulation of banks not to be a serious enough issue to vote against a government for, and realizing that even if it was a risk, whilst the bubble was growing, they were happy enough to see their elected government ensuring that the country got a share of the pie. We all contributed to this fucking mess – if you can call it a mess – its only a mess for those who no longer have jobs and cannot consume so much – by voting in the government, who deregulated the banks and encouraged the lending of our money several times over to riskier and riskier ventures which in actual fact were not producing anything of material benefit, but were instead relying on house prices going up and up, as more people poured their money into it. Now we are in deep shit, because Gordon Brown has poured what little remaining money we have, and we have on credit into the black hole – it has simply disappeared.

There are some people who are saying the bankers should pay for the crisis they created. It doesn’t work like that – it works by people putting their money into a bank – and entrusting the bank to invest it wisely. Where the bank looses the money – the original investor looses the money. This creates a motivation on behalf of the investor to invest wisely, e.g. on the basis of what we know right now investing in Barclays rather than Lloyds TSB or the Royal Bank of Scotland. However reality begins to change once one’s livelihood is threatened – now it is solely the banker’s responsibility to have invested the money wisely, the public who invest their money into the banks are seen to be helpless, powerless twits, whose securities should have been looked after by a paternalistic and caring banking sector. So for example, according to Fox New, “Berlin police estimated that around 10,000 people gathered in front of the capital's city hall and more than 1,000 in Frankfurt, Germany's banking capital, for similar demonstrations under the slogan: "We won't pay for your crisis." Its not a crisis – its just that there are now lots of personal crises – the public didn’t bother to check whether their banks were investing their money properly or wisely and now they are paying for it. But the banks aren’t responsible for this – they really aren’t.

We have two problems. The first was created by the fact that banks lent out our money several times over – so we thought the country was several times as wealthy as it actually was. This led to inflationary pressures especially in the housing market – where the same money was lent to several different people – all investing in housing leading to unrealistic housing prices. We now realize we have a fraction of the wealth we thought we had. This creates deflationary pressures – i.e. where everyone has less money prices are reduced. This problem can be solved by creating a soft deflationary landing to a level where the price of labor and goods reflects the value of the money we have not the value of the money we have and we loaned. This means everyone has to accept lower wages – we can either do this peacefully based around a consensus and agreement between corporations, banks, trade unions or governments – or we can do it aggressively – letting perfectly good companies whose workers refuse to take pay cuts go to the wall – and then watch as millions of unemployed people try to reform and reorganize new companies and enterprises.

The second problem is that banks are no longer making such risky investments – so they are not looking to lend their money on to others – which means there is less money to be lent to people – which means less activity and less economy. We have to get used to less activity – but at least the activity will be invested in activities which are genuinely producing material benefit for people – not leading to an apparent generation of wealth – which is the artificial effect of lending x amount of money to people ten times, making it seem that we are ten times as rich as previously – when actual fact we are equally as wealthy – but with prices ten times as high. We should have also let the banks go to the wall – and started again with a heavily regulated banking sector – which was not allowed to lend out peoples’ money irresponsibly. No-one wants to have to feel the pain from this – i.e. the rich bankers who keep their pensions and bonuses, the people who have banked with them who want to keep their savings, and the businesses who are funded by the banks who want to hang on to their business and jobs. So what Gordon Brown is doing, is in the name of the people, funneling money into the banking system, paying for the debts, and thus, keeping the bankers sweet, keeping the investors sweet, keeping the businesses sweet. Who looses out? All of us – the poor! They never really had anything to loose in the first place, however whilst Gordon Brown borrows money to give to the banks so they can lend to businesses and pay bankers bonuses and salaries, we move a step closer to becoming bankrupt – i.e. not being able to borrow any more money because no-one believes we can pay it back. Once we become bankrupt, social services and welfare will be cut.

According to Gaby Hinsliff, “Many economists believe a recovery now requires bursting that artificial bubble and rebalancing the economy so that Chinese consumers are encouraged spend a little more - reducing America's trade deficit - and Americans a little less. Malloch Brown suggests Britons, too, will need to relearn the art of saving.”

According to the Guardian, “But Scotland Yard is expecting a greater challenge on Wednesday 1 April, dubbed "Financial Fools Day", with a series of protests aiming to cause disruption in the Square Mile and elsewhere.” The Guardian says, “On 1 April an alliance of anti-capitalist groups called G20 Meltdown is organising a carnival headed by "Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse", which will converge in front of the Bank of England. Anarchists are planning to target the second day of the summit at ExCel. Other groups mounting demonstrations include Climate Camp, the Stop the War Coalition, and Government of the Dead. An alternative summit will be held a few hundred yards from the ExCel centre at the University of East London.”

The alternative G20 summit website provides the following manifesto: Can we oust the bankers from power? Can we get rid of the corrupt politicians in their pay? Can we guarantee everyone a job, a home, a future? Can we establish government by the people, for the people, of the people? Can we abolish all borders and be patriots for our planet? Can we all live sustainably and stop climate chaos? Can we make capitalism history? YES WE CAN!

According to the Daily Telegraph, “The G20 conference will lead to a London "lockdown" next week, with parks, roads and businesses closed to keep world leaders safe, Government officials are warning.” The media are really building this up, as an attempt to build readership and sell advertising. Its interesting how a force created by the desire to advertise and promote consumption causes papers to distort and promote a threat and confrontation to the very system upon which it is built. The Daily Telegraph article continues, “Protesters with armed with buckets and spades are among several thousand people who are planning to bring chaos to the heart of central London.Last night it emerged that City workers were being advised to "dress down" next week to avoid drawing attention to themselves.”

To anyone really wanting revolution bear in mind these words from Stephen Moss, “Changing society is hard, and usually starts with a split in the elite. The English civil war and the French revolution both began with a fissure in the governing classes; their falling-out created the space for populist movements to develop. For a grassroots movement to effect change is enormously difficult. It was only possible in Russia in 1917 because of the devastation wrought by war.”

The reality of the demo was perhaps best summer up by ‘one789’ who said, “My experience of the demo, in talking to people and observing, is that no one had any real clue of why they were there. They recognise 'blame the bankers' to be futile and a distraction, think capitalism 'is rubbish' and 'want change', but say nothing beyond that.I at least expected a high degree of frustration and anger, but more than anything what came across was disillusionment and confusion. But then, that's what you get I suppose from such a middle-class yummy-mummy bleeding-heart rally.”

As rabbit95 said, “Be glad we live in a society free enough to protest and where, apart from the police possibly taping your presence at such a demo, there will be no comeback.”

www.g20.org/

www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/summit-aims/summit-progress/

www.altg20.org.uk/

www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13362...

www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13362027

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-protests-london

www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/mar/28/g20-protest-...

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2009/mar/28/g20-su...

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/28/g20-protest

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-summit-globalisa...

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/25/g20-q-a

news.google.co.uk/news?q=G20+summit+London+2009&oe=ut...

www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/

www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5050...

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/29/g20-summit

www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/global-update/cp-china/active-...

www.londonsummit.gov.uk/en/summit-aims/summit-progress/qu...

www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/domestic_politics...

www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_pol...

For great photographs and the low down on the G20 Summit, Protests and Demonstrations visit www.ravishlondon.com/g20

Dark & Gloomy Woods by Steve

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...predicted weather forecast says thunderstorms on the way?

* Vivitar Wide-Angle 28mm f/2.5 (Kino/Kiron) lens

* Fotasy FD/FL-EOSM lens adapter

Checking out the Sky by linda_lou2

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Mr Gray Cloud thinks that it’s a snow sky. There’s a cold front coming in and they’re predicting a chance of snow flurries tomorrow morning, so we’ll see…

365 Toy Project No. 39

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books-2022-rss by Robin Slomkowski

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2022 Reading List

•Top Fiction: The Periodic Table, Primo Levi; These are just such a lovely set of stories of life great (war) and small (little relations) mixed in with a very personal and practical view of chemistry.

•Top Non-Fiction: Science and Human Behavior, B.F. Skinner; Even though this is dated and abandoned by modern psychology I find myself referring to this book more than others as it is so relevant to modern issues of AI, A/B Testing, and social media.

•Top Business: Treasure Islands, Nicholas Shaxson; I find this book persuasive on how financial malfeasance really does effect the real world we all have to live in.

www.icloud.com/pages/0de1rgmN8YVR0hCsqZWMdNPMg#rss-2022-r...

Full List

1.Being Ram Dass, Ram Dass; A history of the counterculture by one of its icons. The mix of psychology, Buhdism, and Hinduism is peculiar and western and deeply personal to Ram Dass. It gave me insights and context into many personalities that influenced my early life: Leary, Muktanada, Keasey, Sai Baba, and ZBS productions. I was disappointed in his reliance on miracles to explain is devotion to Mittenanda, but it did show what was best in the self actualization movement and how to end well.

2.How to Read a Book, Mortimer J Adler; This time I spent quite a bit of attention on the notion of meaning, truth, and tradition. I believe if you read for meaning then Truth must be important to you, otherwise it is just entertainment. “Terms” can only achieve meaning and work within a given tradition or literature. Not all traditions are equal, and believe that just as mathematics is an overly specific language, you can reason and find truth within a tradition, but you can assess the falsity of a tradition by comparing it to pragmatic concerns with the physical world. This brings up concerns with a post modernists view has real consequences for reasoning about the natural world.

3.Paradise Lost, John Milton; This is the story we all know of the Bible that isn’t in the Bible. The ultimate sin is “pride,” Satan is the serpent and the seducer, Eve is blonde, and Jesus is doubly a king (of heaven and earth). The book does show off its time, clearly responding to the Glorious Revolution and anti-Catholic in nature, not mention Satan’s use of canon.

4.Science and Human Behavior, B.F. Skinner; This book encourages a purely external black box view of human being with consciousness and cognition as unimportant characteristics. What is impressive is not the shortcoming of this technique found in the last 70 years (CBT, Neural Imaging, Deep-Learning) but the shear efficacy of the approach at predicting and controlling human behavior. His lessons on the failures of punishment, and the importance of distributed control structures have become increasingly important as behavior controlling power has become much more centralized through entertainment and advertising companies.

5.The Rise of Rome, Anthony Everett; I modern telling of Republican Rome, that always starts with the myth and then explains the confirmation and differences of modern scholarship, but keeps to the classical narrative of Rome as that is what drives its importance to us. The importance of civilian Militia to Rome and their obsession with order and ambivalence to Greece are well described, the section on Hannibal was very good to make some sense of Punic/Phonetian/Catheginian/Spanish all fit together as the semetic rival of Rome.

6.The Aeneid, Virgil, tr. Cecil Day-Lewis; A great epic poem that feels a bit like a Greek epic remix with so many of Ulysses and other Greek adventures revisited, but characters have so many more inner voices and are so much more psychologically modern.

7.Great Courses Aeneid, prof Elizabeth Vandiver; It was interesting the degree the book was meant to justify Augustus Caesar, from simple examples like the Trojan Games, to explain the war on Carthage, and to justify the importance of Piety/Duty. Also the idea that he mixes both the Odyssey and the Iliad in reverse order to bring those stories to a wider audience is fascinating, and how this is the only details extent of the Trojan Horse.

8.The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger; A surprisingly amusing journalistic book of how to write a story about a lost boat in which we don’t know what happened and the whole story is done by simile of the similar stories. The stories of modern fishing and how hard and brutal life can still be due to weather and the realities of the sea.

9.Children of Gebelawi, Naguib Mahfouz; A story that mostly uses ordinary people in a realistic violent patriarchy as metaphor for the Judo-Christian-Islamic tradition and by extension our modern world. The story creates an emotional understanding of the middle eastern cultures of what is both loved and hated within their own culture, but with a desire for freedom and fairness that externally we assume means independence.

10.A True History of the United States: Indigenous Genocide, Racialized Slavery, Hyper-Capitalism, Militarist Imperialism and Other Overlooked Aspects of American Exceptionalism, Daniel A. Sjursen; An attempt at a 21st century Progressive’s history of the United States. It feels a bit awkward as it tells the story of America through its military conflicts, which doesn’t always align well with the important events for its oppressed peoples, also the book does not define nore justify concern about equity or hyper-capitalism. More complete than Zinn’s book but still not a stand-alone history and starts to feel journalistic starting with George Bush Jr. The pre-Bill of rights section is by far the best covering the complexities of colonial times and an unusually in-depth analysis of the Spanish American war. FDR and Russian apologist tendencies are mediocre.

11.Economics Facts and Fallacies, Thomas Sowell; Fairly basic economic analysis of tradeoffs and incentives, from a very conservative African American Economist. Generally well argued and very clear, though not always covering all the data. Not very persuasive on executive pay, excellent examples of the problems with statistical comparisons for economic development for wages, women, and blacks around non-comparable demographics age, education, marriage status. I agree with his analysis that the real problem with gender pay inequality is a problem with marriage and motherhood, I disagree that this is not a problem.

12.Arabian Nights and Days, Mafouz Naguib; A selection of 1001 nights stories, converted to a slightly more modern and real world and given specific moral meanings. The themes of the corruption of power from position, wealth, or invisibility caps is very present. The Sultan is ultimately creating corruption through his abuse of power, the book leaves unanswered to what degree we can ever achieve forgiveness for our sins.

13.The Koran, Mohamed tr. N.J. Dawood; A much more clear and prescriptive religious text than the bible. The retold stories include Adam and Satan, where Satan denies man's dominion over the earth, Moses where even clear miracles are denied, Jesus has a virgin mother but got has no son nor wife. Alms/Charity are always repeated ass is the care of orphans.

14.Cleopatra: A Biography, Michael Grant; Tries to tell the story from Cleopatra’s point of view, relying heavily on an optimistic strategic view of what could have been to her interest. In this story Cleopatra is the Hellenic Queen and represents the traditions of Alexander. She becomes a competent extension of the Tolomeis traditions working hard with vision and ruthlessness to maintain the power of her family within its own traditions. Relied surprisingly heavily on coin evidence and it was fun though not inherently convincing to mix in poetry through the ages to describe the possible scenes.

15.The Canterbury Tales, Geofrey Chaucer; Modern spelling and pronunciation, but original words. Was excellent storytelling, a collection of short stories that speak to each other as a series. Curious mixture of baudy and pious that feels surprisingly like Shakespeare (also the overlap of historic and classical themes). Many if not most of the stories are taken from other sources and are reset to give them a specific impact, that still resonates until today with the humor~ and lessons even if we moderns miss the stereotypes of the time.

16.Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff; This was a specific attempt at a positive view of Cleopatra as a competent ruler. The author correctly interprets that the primary stories we have have all been tainted by a conqueror who needed to have a villain to justify his war. Her arguments are convincing that Cleopatra was an active and judicious ruler working for her own self interest, she expanded her empire substantially, she reduced her own infighting, increased wealth and power though she eventually lost the entire kindgdom.

17.Immune, Philipp Dettmer; This is narrative biology, really optimized for kids to learn their first cellular system. It is up to date and current on the science but eliminates the biochemistry on the immune system, I learned about feedback loop of Macrophages/Neutrophil, Dendritic messengers, Lymphocyte (T&B) activation with silly analogies that are memorable.

18.The Bhagavad Gita, Traditional tr. Swami Swarupananda; It is interesting to read the raw text with its curious mixtures of things. I was most surprised by the mixing of caste called out as one of the obvious and greatest sins. I also found the mixing of the ideas that I am more familiar with from Chinese traditions such as the importance of duty (confucianism) and unattachment (buddhism). The lesson I took the most was the focus on accomplishment of duty without the aim for attaining Glory of the universe even if evil actions are taken, they can be forgiven if they follow the glorification of god. This produces a strong social structure without revenge and incrimination. This is a very un-Christian solution to the problem of Evil, as it always exists with us, and it exists without intent, but we can only overcome it (not individually) by maintaining society/duty.

19.A Short History of Artificial Intelligence, Michael Wooldridge; This books feels weak when compared to Mitchel’s AI book as it fails to really explain how different techniques work and covers a bit of the same history. This book is more in the history and makes it much more clear how much AI has always been part of mainstream software history, as the “Intelligence” has never been precise, the best insight of this book was the importance of computation complexity theory on the limits of AI, and why a combination of deep neural nets and monte-carlo strategies have only superficially solved the problem for some very deterministic cases like games. The second big insight was how much Brook’s strategy of interactive “intelligence” (roomba like) produces powerful results, but has no theoretical structure for progression.

20.The Sandman (01-75) & Audio Book, Neil Gaiman; Literary Horror, but still a comic book. The audiobook felt so much darker than the comic. It is a writers book, it is about the power of stories, both to create the gods and let them live on, the stories we create to punish ourselves (hell, furies) and the nightmares to guide us, and how end of each story is a little death that doesn’t

21.The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides tr. Benjamin Jowett; this almost feels like a modern history other than the unquoted speeches that are one the best parts of the book, the various rhetorical devices are masterworks. For Thucydides the war is a conflict between the slow alliance building oligarchs of Sparta and the mercurial imperialists of Athens. One offering honor and stability and other wealth and democracy. Nicias is my favorite General who doesn’t want to go to war but tries and fails. It feels a bit like a modern history book, and it is a great adventure story in its own right with detailed local politics with twisting alliances.

22.Treasure Islands, Nicholas Shaxson; I do prefer the author's term secrecy jurisdiction s over Tax havens. It makes it clear it is a way to legally hide things from laws. Tax is lost which while that has negative consequences especially for the poor and weak it is side story from the evasion of legislation, and encouraging crime and corruption. The author's pro legislation, kaysien, labour movement opinions distract from how lack of rule of law hurt us all, even Delaware, Zürich, and the city of London.

23.Old Man's War Series (Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale, The Human Division, The End of All Things), John Scalzi; The series has too much plot and not enough character or setting, it goes from super soldier, to frontier, to teenage team, to band of misfits save the world adventure stories. The world is a screed against sectionalism, and panegyric to individualism and the power of choice. The tension between these drives the relationships with the Aliens and development of human society.

24.Do Dice Play God, Ian Stewart; This is a book of practical mathematics, it focuses on statistics, unlike Taleb who really focuses on the meaning of uncertainty, this explains a difference between randomness (true incompressible information) and unpredictability (deterministic chaos). It goes well beyond the history of statistics and into dynamic equations and partial differential estimations and the how and why these techniques have been developed. Basically the practical side of the most advanced mathematics I studied. Stewart is determinist and makes an argument we should look for deterministic chaos in systems such as quantum.

25.Superior: the return of race science, Angela Saini; The book is a journalist look into biological racism's history, disproof, and revival. The author approaches the subject as a Briton of Indian decent, points out the two biggest proponents of eugenics we're the USA and Nazi Germany, how statistically there is more variation within any identified racial group than between any of them and how race consciousness especially in medicine combined with new national narratives is bringing back biological (scientific) racism.

26.Under the Volcano, Malcolm Lowery; This is a very lyrical novel, that has great depth of character stuffed into 1 day and 1 hour a year later. The story is set with the tension of 1938 as an implicit background, and individuals whose horrible fate seems avoidable if they could just for a moment be something other than their ordinary selves. The Consul can observe and analyze the world in detail, but cannot make even simple choices in his anxiety and alcoholism, Yvonne has independently struck upon the same idea as the Consul to escape but cannot articulate it to him in his malaise to force it to reality, Hugh wants desperately to make his mark on the world, but always chooses the hopeless irrelevant path of history, when opportunity is so close but he cannot know. It leaves me thinking of how many decisions in our life are close to something that could make us better, but the default is to remain stuck where we are.

27.American Cartel, Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz; It is a two part story, starts with a crime novel and switches to an unfinished courtroom drama. I can almost sympathize with the manufacturers and distributors' claim that they are not responsible for prescribing or handing out the drugs, but the ‘71 controlled substance act gave the distributors the impossible task of regulating the distribution of what made them money. The story doesn’t explain why those groups went to Trump, but the ineffectiveness of the law to curb the distribution and death (even when doctors and pharmacists could be jailed), the revolving door of regulators and advisors, the lobbying to make it impossible to enforce the laws left many communities with nothing but anger and woe.

28.Understanding Power, Noam Chomsky; A primer on American leftist ideology, and a guidebook for Q-Anon. I did not know Chomsky’s past in the peace movement, or the American Communist party. Fundamentally he is an Anrcho-Syndicalist who has extreme faith in the ability of planners. He is very good at guiding a reader through institutional analysis, but as the book progresses he takes to much of the aims and institutions as responsibility for the outcomes. “they” must of planned it and made it happen. He is well read in history but provides a sometimes bizarre but not unsupportable view of facts, like people forced off farms into industry. His anti-Expert views, then demanding that aims can easily become results creates a perfect motte-bailey argument pattern for conspiracy theories, now popularized by the far right.

29.The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo; An ode to Medieval Paris, with a believable world with ridiculously over the top operatic characters and plot. Esmerelda and Frolio are both entirely corrupted by lust, there is no real redemption for Quasimodo who overcomes his position in society that believes that the soul must follow the body, leaving everything in tragedy. Even while maudlin over the top the details and dialog are fantastic, the philosophizing on architecture and poets is hilarious and insightful, I am left of thinking how the times and place make the man.

30.How Numbers Work, New Scientist; Fun superficial survey of modern mathematics, some little history like base10 and decimals moving from China to India to Europe, a very consise explanation ofhow set theory can ground numbers, cute applications of stats to the real world, the big names like Hilbert and Weil get little vignettes, the phycs and philosophy was just weak, casual read I recommend it to my kids

31.Proof: The Science of Booze, Adam Rogers; This was a fun book, mycology and biochemistry. The importance of the yeast, how the enzymes of malt work, good fun casual science read with a little bit of politics and history thrown in.

32.Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison; re-read last time I read it I was in high school, and I barely remember it but it is fantastic, I would classify it more as a middle-age book than a coming of age book. It is deeply about the African American experience that still exists today, but that is used to show sharp relief of more general problems of how we find our place in society,. The anonymous author is invisible in many ways, the biggest is that he cannot be recognized for who he is, unlike the modern focus on identitarian politics. This focus is on how our history must effect us but we still desire freedom and recognition as individuals, not live other peoples dreams for them. I find the section on the inadequacy of the freedom of the duplicitous hipster Rinehart as inadequate, interesting and convincing.

33.Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, Jon Lee Anderson; This was an excellent biography that gives strong historical perspective and evaluates the existing controversies. Che comes out as an amazing leader through his passion for a fair society for socialist man Well done biography giving a sense of characters and balancing the historic controversies of the subject. I very much appreciated the level of context of the Americas in the ‘50s as a background setting. Che comes through as a quirky and unique individual, who provided leadership through strong conviction, and unflinching dedication to his ideals. The story is ultimately tragic, not due to the death and horror that he wrought, but how in life we can only learn one set of hard won lessons of loyalty and universally high standards for mankind that served Che so well in Cuba failed utterly in the Congo and Bolivia leading to his failure and death. His thesis of “Gorilla war as the crucible to forge the socialist man” is both true and inadequate. It was true as only extreme hardship could provide an environment to force people to work together wholeheartedly as one without conventions and institutions, but inadequate for creating a complete society.

34.The World According to Physics, Jim Al-Khalili; This a book about physics in 2020’s, it explains the 3 foundations of Relativity, Quantum, and Thermodynamics at their current state for the non-mathematical. I think the failure to address the dimensionality problems of Superstrings and the divide by 0 problems of merging Relativity and Quantum was sad even for a non-mathematical summary, but he does a great job of addressing the big problems of physics why unified theories are hard and desirable, why quantum is so important to the real world, the realists demands, why esoteric particles are so important to find, why holographic theory is important for cross-over from the large to the small.

35.The Periodic Table, Primo Levi; a beautiful collection of stories about life, work, the material world, growing up, and growing old. The background of his experience in concentration camp keeps the story somber, but his playful look at his youth and becoming a chemist, and making friends keeps the collection cheerful and insightful to human characters. Vanadium is such a short and concise look at many of the complexities of coming to terms with the ordinary horror of IG Farben employees and the inability to fully appreciate the enormity of the camps.

36.Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin; I was looking for ideas to improve underperforming teams, what I got was a refresher on the importance of deliberate practice: intentional, responsive, specific, and repeatable practice is what makes great performance. General skills/IQ allow people to get to a basic level fast, but does not speed up specific performance, also specific practice can even overcome much of the general failures of aging. The ability to apply this to teams was only through simile and didn‘t provide direct guidance. But is a good reminder of just how important intentionality is any result.

37.101 Wilderness Survival Skills, Kevin Estell; This was 80% covered in the old Boy Scout handbook, it reminded me of a set of skills that do make me feel more comfortable outside even if I rarely use them. I agree with the incredible nature of 550 paracord, but it is a bit more “survivalist” oriented than my relationship with the outside. It did make me think about emergency preparedness and the basic usefulness of knife, “cord”, and fire skills. I don’t really know how to teach fire skills to my kids in our modern low fire world.

38.Baltasar and Blimunda, José Saramago; The compelling plot is driven by the magical realism narrative and love of Baltasar and Blimunda, but the main thrust of the book is the condemnation of the church & monarchy failing to take care of the people and the great waste of wealth. The naive and omniscient across time narrator sets a sarcastic tone to the book to offset the saccharin love of the main characters, but their relationships with others are subtle and realistic: the monk, the music master, the sister, the father, and the workers are all beautiful vignettes.

39.The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World, Andrew Doyle; A very contemporary work with an obnoxious beginning. The worst parts of the book are the complaints and examples of Woke aggression, the best part is the intellectual history of related topics and terms. I am unpersuaded that calling people their preferred pronouns is anything other than polite, but I do agree it should not be legally enforced, which leads to my strong sympathies with defense of Liberal Enlightenment ideology and primacy of reasoned argument as a method of social and material progress that must be defended and encouraged.

40.What I Didn’t Learn in Business School, Jay B. Barney; A fictional novel of management consultants as a pedagogical tool for business. It works OK, to explain the importance of real world experience to utilize NPV, 5-Forces, etc…, the need for diverse experiences to get at data, and the unrelenting importance of relationships and teamwork.

41.The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing; This is surprisingly readable, technically complicated book, the divisions into a writer’s versions of herself and multiple fictionalized versions of the characters lives, reactions and experience divided up by themes. The themes that left an impression on me were those of the communists and feminism. The focus on ideology that is supposed to be good but became corrupt echos of itself, self aware and embarrassed of its own failure. The relations between genders is deeply personal leaving open tradeoffs of independence and community, the social needs and expectations that come bundled in ways that even when the law allows cannot be taken apart leaving individuals unsatisfied. Watching the world the views of an empath who knows what everyone feels from the their body languages and is intellectual aware of how she is influenced by others but incapable of resisting was well portrayed.

The Only Way to Predict the Future... by Alan Levine

... a sign in Guadalajara spotted by Ken Bauer who suggested it in response to Audrey Watters talk on "The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Issue a Press Release"--

hackeducation.com/2016/11/02/futures

It also helps to pass out Johnnie Walker when doing that?

Iridium flare_2 by beninfreo

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Magnitude -4.5 flare from Iridium 15 over Fremantle this evening. Predicted position using the iFlares app. This is a close up of the other image in my stream

www.cloudtogroundimages.com

Blue skies and fair weather by Carol VanHook

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Predicting a warming trend! Cumulus humilis -- flat-bottomed and puffy like cotton. They are found scattered randomly through the sky in separate little piles, and they are said to indicate “fair weather,” meaning no precipitation and moderate temperatures. They get the name humilis (meaning humble, lowly, small) because they are the tiny, non-threatening Cumulus.

Colorful Quilt at Coburg, Oregon Quilt Festival by Pixel Packing Mama ~ 40 Million Views

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This reminds me a bit of film strips. The copyright is for my photo, not for the quilt. I did not make the quilt.

(4235quiltatCoburg-remindedmeoffilmstripsRIT)

Here is a true story, but it is not about this particular quilt; it is about the experience of going to the Sisters, Oregon and then the Coburg, Oregon Quilt Festivals.

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This story is a little about the Sisters Quilt Show on July 14, 2012, but also a little about the Coburg Quilt Show on July 28, 2012.

We went to Sisters, Oregon for their Annual Quilt Show (an outdoor one in a scenic town, and very special). We, my daughter and granddaughter and I, were late getting there. One needs to be on time for events like this, as they begin taking down the quilts from walls and rafters and porches and balconies about 4 o'clock or so. We knew we were running way late, but wanted to try to get to see a few any way. Well, preceding our arrival, there was a pretty good size hail and rain and thunderstorm. So, we were not likely to find even a little piece of cloth anywhere outside in the town of Sisters. Anna saw this bug. She was not crying; she was just making a face. I'm kind of sorry I missed getting some photos of the people (mostly ladies but not all) frantically running around getting their precious quilts out of the storm. In a way, it would have made for some humorous shots. I can picture some distraught lady trying to decide which one of her *babies* to save first. In another way, I love quilts and admire the workmanship people do, and I would not blame them one bit for trying to get them out of the weather, and if it were my quilt or an heirloom, I would have been right out there with them trying to save mine from the weather. Usually in Sisters, Oregon it is lovely weather in July. That is why they plan it then. We had not arrived in town yet when it happened. You might say the town was threadbare. We like to get raffle tickets to try to win one of the beautiful quilts they have there. The storm had cleared when we arrived, but I am not walking very well; so Anna and Jennifer walked a few blocks down to the Pharmacy which is also a gift shop, I think. They usually have more than one raffle in Sisters, but that is the main one we head for. Even though the quilt to be raffled would have been inside the store, and the store was still open, they had closed down the little display area where the quilt usually was. No tickets available and not even a chance to look at the quilt! Boo Hoo!

Well, we made the best of it, and got ice cream cones and browsed around a bit. We took Anna to a place were she could see Llamas up close. We saw some authentic looking pioneer wagons displayed. A sign said don't climb on them, but it didn't say we couldn't stand beside them and take some pictures.

There was, at another part of town a vintage buckboard full of gorgeous purple and white petunias. I posted one shot of that already here on Flickr.

On the way back home, we had plenty of time to stop and see some of the forest that had been stripped of foliage, and scorched and charred and deformed some years back. I normally like my trees with leaves and lots of greenery, but these were strangely lovely and compelling. Jennifer was sweet enough to offer to stop and let me get lots of shots, rather than just a quickie shot out the car window. It was a pretty fascinating place, and seemed like it was showing signs of recovery. That whole area had lava from long ago, and was, I suppose, a lot more stripped of foliage when a volcano erupted long ago, than what we saw from a forest fire. We had fun exploring that area.

My daughter and granddaughter are quite the little photographers too. Actually, Jennifer took this photo. I just spruced it up a bit and posted it for her.

A trip up the McKenzie (River) Highway wouldn't be complete without a stop at Sahalie Falls. I have been going there every year, and sometimes twice a year, for about 40 years. It never disappoints. I've been taking Jennifer there since she was a baby, and then the same with Anna. We are definitely three generations of waterfall lovers. I suspect my mother and her grandparents were also, but in a different part of the country. My son doesn't live in this area now, but when he grew up here, he also had many trips to the falls.

We also had time to stop at the Forest Service Offices, and they had several devices for learning about nature. Each of us got some free posters, and we recalled how I bought Jennifer a Smoky Bear stuffed toy there about 20 years ago. She still has him.

I digress. We arrived home on the night of July 14th with no raffle ticket for a quilt. I thought to myself, it isn't as if I don't have pictures from previous trips I could browse through, but we were a tad bit sad.

On July 28th, we decided to go to the Coburg Quilt Festival. It was pretty hot out, and though the drive is much, much closer than Sisters, there isn't any fabulous white water river near by. The town of Coburg is old, and has a gazilliion antique shops. We had no money to speak of, so we didn't go shopping. We had been to the first quilt show they had in Coburg about 7 years ago. Anna was a baby. I made the remark to Jennifer at that time, that the one in Coburg had the potential to become quite a nice annual event. I guess it has. We walked around one corner and Anna was the first to notice a very large and awesome quilt. She exclaimed, "Look Mommy, look GranDee, that one is so pretty!" We bought some raffle tickets ~ that is my one gambling thing a year I allow myself. I was talking with one of the ticket sellers, and told her about the Sisters show getting rained and hailed out. I said how we tried to buy a quilt raffle ticket there, but no luck. She said, "This is the same quilt you would have gotten a ticket for there in Sisters, if they had stayed open. We take it around to a few quilt shows for the Mary's River Quilt Guild." So...we didn't miss a thing. This is the first year I put Anna's name of one of the tickets, and will actually let her have the quilt if she wins. Probably as a glorious wall hanging. Maybe as an occasional treat for Anna to sleep with, but I'm not about to have rambunctious Rose, the Hungarian Vizsla puppy, jumping all over it.. So Jen got three chances, I got two and Anna got one. One of us may actually win. Our family is pretty lucky at that sort of thing.

Here are a couple of kickers to conclude my story. One, I live by the Mary's River. I know some of the people who work or did work at Benton County Museum in Philomath, Oregon. That is where the quilt will reside until the drawing. I need to ask one of my personal friends if she helped to make it. Wouldn't that be something? She is in the Mary's River Quilt Guild, but I didn't remember that they are one of the main groups to hold a quilt raffle each year. Also, and I am going to end with this. Any of you have seen very many of my 20,000 photos here on Flickr, know that I have Green Peak right out my rear window, and not very far to the north, Mary's Peak. Just glance at my Sunsets Set, and see how many times Sunset over Mary's Peak or Sunset over Green Peak comes up. I was so pleasantly surprised to see (and this was total serendipity) that the quilt was named, "Sunset over Mary's Peak!"

THE END

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I belong to two non-fiction story groups, and it is the rule, and only makes sense, to just post your stories one time. I will put this story with each picture in my set, because not every one will see every picture, nor necessarily read the non-fiction group entries. That way, no matter which picture they might click on they can see the story. This just happens to be the photo under which I started typing away. I think I will make my entry to the true story groups a different photo, than the one of Anna Leigh with the beetle, though. I guess I'll pick one more quiltlike.

Philco Predicta Siesta B&W TV by Atomic-Ken

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Here is my most recent find, a 1960 Philco Predicta Siesta B&W TV in gold! Purchased from its original owner no less, with original stand too.

Thai people setting their candle-lit krathongs in the Ping river at night during Loy Krathong 2015-162 by John Shedrick

A krathong is small container or basket made of banana leaves, adorned with flowers, incense and candles. Loy Krathong means “to float a basket” which is what many people do during the festival on one of the three days.

The Thais see this as a time to wave goodbye to misfortune, wash away sins of the past year, and make wishes for the coming year. Often people will say a prayer before launching the krathong.

For the romantic at heart or young couples, Loi Krathong is the time to make a wish for happiness together. watching the route that a krathong takes is a popular way for couples to predict what the future holds for their relationship.

As a photographer, I was lucky to have access to a good vantage point to photograph people performing this yearly ritual.

I tried to capture the spirit of the event.

A Pause To Prepare For The Big Snow In Brooklyn by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ

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It's predicted that there will be about 4 to 6 inches of snow in New York City this weekend. Our hard working, hard eating Sanitation Men (the strongest) are anticipating breaking out their shovels, salt and plows for a long day tomorrow.

New York City didn't get much snow at all. Philadelphia received 28 inches of snow and Washington DC had about 25 inches. Weird. I'm sure the Sanitation guys were happy they missed it.