Category: Everything Else

Pillars for a Better America – Chapter 3

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Pillars for a Better America – Pillars 7-9

 

As noted earlier, the list will run up until the inauguration. It is not all inclusive, nor is it presented in priority order. It offers important choices for the new administration to tackle.

This is a mix of domestic and international, of national and regional/local. This list exists in part to address our requirements and shortfalls. It is also exists to encourage dialogue about what we want to be as a country. We need t to get things done.

What Do We Have So Far?

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Time for My Inner Grinch to Speak

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The Choices Some of Us Make About Holiday Travel Endangers Us All

 

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Christmas is a few weeks away. An ideal time for my Grinch to speak out. The subject at hand: personal decisions about holiday travel.

What is at Play Here

Pandemics are interesting. They are so universal where they strike. Yet how much they spread depends to a great extent on individual, personal decisions. The current pandemic and people’s decisions about gathering are a classic case in point.

The variables are government (in)action,

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Thinking About Thanksgiving Through a 2020 Filter

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The Idea of Thanksgiving is Both Challenged and Reinforced This Year

 

It is Still 2020

Boy, is this ever a year we will all be glad to close the books on. In some ways Thanksgiving is no exception. Plans and traditions are disrupted for most of us for this most American of holidays. Still, it is not too much of a stretch to reflect on how very much many of us can be grateful for, even this year. Let’s take a small inventory.

You Can Be Grateful If…

  • You don’t have and have not had COVID 19
  • No one close to you has died from the pandemic virus
  • If you are working and you still have a job (and health insurance)
  • You have access to some technology that lets you see and hear those you would like to be with in person.

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Hope, Promise, and Fun from Science and Technology

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It Will be Hard to Avoid Politics for the Next Couple of Months. Let’s Take a Brain Break

Part of our Hey! Look at That! Series

We are in a time of challenge, tension, and reasons to worry. We have been here before in many ways, I note, on this the anniversary of the terrorism of 9/11. Still, even in times of risk and fear, there is also hope and good news. I thought we might take a one day break today to look at some of those things, take a deep breath,

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A Long View of History

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A Short Break from US Politics to Think about Something a Bit Longer Term.

I seem to have run into a slew of reading and viewing of late about lost civilizations. I have “visited” these places before, but my recent engagements have left me with a new thought line that rather connects them all.

First, Let’s Review the Terrain

  • Peru, where an impressive civilization that left us Machu Pichu, once ruled a powerful empire.
  • Ancient Egypt, the remains of which some estimate we have uncovered only about 5%.
  • Angor Watt was the largest complex ever built at that time of history.

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The Doppelgänger Effect – You, Meet You

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Is That Me, You?

 

The idea of a doppelganger is an ancient concept that literature loves to this day. The term originated in German folklore. It meant a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon, usually as a harbinger of bad luck. Today it is more broadly defined to include a non-biologically related look-alike or double of a living person. 

 

It is a concept fiction writers have loved since its earliest days. I am not much of a fiction reader (unless you count anything Trump says). But I do feast often on science fiction and here, too, the doppelganger often finds a home.

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We Are Witnessing BIG History. Take Notes.

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Some of This Will Inspire Us. Much of This Will Not Be Pretty

The following post was one I drafted back in early March, but never posted. It was bumped by other news and forgotten. At the time, we were just starting to experience the pandemic that now dominates so much of our lives. Little did we know back then just how big an effect we were about to experience, and how long this fight was going to be. Looking back on this post, it seems both prophetic and a bit innocent, almost naive. I don’t know about you,

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The Question of the Day: WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

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In Case You Missed Them, a Few Indications This Week That Our Species Has a Bell Curve

What a Week That Was

I generally have the next 2-3 blogs outlined a few days ahead of time. On occasion, events cause me to bump the order of things, but for the most part, the system allows me to give some time and thought to what shows up in your inbox. That was the plan for today.

I have indeed given much thought to this posting, but it is not the one I started with originally.

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Yes, I Hear What You are Saying, But…

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There are Difficult but Promising Conversations Going on Now. Here, Some Help in Having Them

I have been fascinated, and often encouraged, by the conversations going on right now in our country about who we are and who we want to be as a nation. Some of these are really tough and awkward. Some of the toughest ones are in our own heads. People are asking themselves if they are as open minded as they thought. Am I as unbiased as I think I am? I sympathize with others, but have I really been listening? Do I have any grasp of what others are living and thinking?

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READ THIS DOCUMENT

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For the First Time in this Blog I am Linking a Single Document – Read It

I Have Something for You

Regular readers know that I often make reference to other articles, documents, and videos, encouraging you to read them to learn more about the topic at hand. Today we take that a step further.

I am going to say very little about this document, except to say that I think it is extraordinary and well worth your time to peruse.  We are in a time of great turmoil and challenge in our country.

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