Author: Mark Tokarski

Just a man who likes to read, argue, and occasionally be surprised.

A MAC Photo

Washington Sean left a most interesting comment under the post below, Drinking From a Fire Hose.

My professor and mentor said that to make (not take) a great image the photo should have one or more of The BIG MAC ingredients. The Big MAC was his recipe for good photos and the secret sauce was M = Mystery, A = Ambiguity, C = Contradiction.

Easier said than done. I do not stage any photos, but do grab images in things I see. Yesterday, at a local hiking area, we came across a Red Tail Hawk, and I grabbed my camera and tried to get within range. Nothing was working on the camera, dead battery. I had to return to the car for a fresh one, and by that time the hawk and flown to the top of a tree. It was actually a better shot, and I made my way and started taking terrible burst photos. At a certain point the hawk was attacked by two ravens and a battle ensued. I will look at the photos today, but I am pretty sure I missed it all. I have so far to go in this pastime.

Even had I captured the raven/hawk encounter, I do not think it would qualify as a MAC photo. There is no ambiguity, no contradiction. The only mystery is why crows and ravens continually attack larger birds like hawks and owls. We often see this, as have the readers here, a large bird followed by a swarm of smaller ones. One time on the Audubon Christmas bird count in Montana, we came upon a loud and noisy tree, full of crows. Jim, the expert, said “Pay attention. We will find a hawk in that tree.” We did.

All I could think after reading Sean’s comment is that it had be be a very hard class, but a worthwhile one. Over lunch yesterday it occurred to me that I might have one photo that qualifies as a MAC, one that I did not take. See below.

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The ban has ended

Several days ago I removed Petra Liverani from the moderation list, and told her she was free to come and go here as she pleased. I told her the real reason I banned her was that she was ignoring the host of the blog, not a good idea. I also told her that I knew of the pain, humiliation and anger that goes along with banning, and that it would not happen again.

I thought that I should also publicly apologize to her, as she did nothing to deserve such treatment. She was being herself. And I do apologize to her now, in front of everyone.

Let this be a warning to all of you! The host of this blog can behave badly, but usually comes around.

84 years of failed predictions

Epoch Times … not sure what to make of it. It seems at times Trumpy, and at times Musky. It seems to operate on very little advertising, meaning there are deep pockets keeping it afloat. But I subscribed, and like the idea of getting a paper newspaper. (I do not know who John Tang is, or Falun Gong practitioners, but apparently there is an important Chinese connection.)

The current issue highlights climate predictions that have not come true, 1939 to 2023, with a hat tip to a 1923 New York Times article that Arctic ice was melting at a rapid and alarming rate. You can review them here. I will highlight a few of the Epoch fails, you might call them. There are 41 of them.

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Agent before, honest man now

It was 2008 or so, not sure when. I could look it up, as I signed a contract, a “NDA”, or nondisclosure agreement. A large Lincoln Continental pulled in our driveway in Bozeman, and I sat inside with a man named Dell. I had been blogging for a few years, nothing really interesting, party politics and the like, and a very small following.

Dell said that blogging was seen as a tool for his people, a way to influence people. He thought my writing was crisp, but could serve a better purpose. Partisan politics was good, he thought, a nice way to keep people divided without affecting any outcomes, but blogging could serve a larger purpose.

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Inlaws and Outlaws

Mark asked me if I had seen ‘The Outlaw Josie Wales’ and what I thought of it had I seen it. To get a running start, l need to talk about Vaxageddon.

The Good

I take care of my nonagenarian, bedridden, spoon fed mother who lives in an assisted living* facility. She is also attended to by the living saints who work there; bathing her, changing her, and feeding her. I don’t know how they do it, but these women who would not be given a second thought on the bus, the street, at the mall, the laundromat, are clearly higher life forms.

But wherever Good is found, Evil is sure to be lurking. Sometime ago, Sept. ‘21(?) California Governor Gruesome decreed that no one shall pass through the entrance of any assisted living facility without proof of vaccination. The alternative was proof of a negative test every 24 hours (this was the house rule- more stringent than Gov. Ghoul’s 72 hour cycle)

Obviously, getting tested every day was untenable, so with no more moves available, I submitted to the Pfizer double-tap. Result: Nothing. No symptoms, no growths, no third ear or second nose mutations- nada.

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Radiation: The final nail in the Apollo coffin

So many things about Apollo are unraveling now – underpowered rockets, no protection against micrometeorites or meteorites, photographic chicanery, astronauts who seemed withdrawn on return, plus (most important to me) the idea that in this complicated engineering undertaking, everything went right the very first time.

I like to cook, to experiment with new recipes, and without fail with even something so simple, I screw up the first try. I overlook something, leaving something out, over or undercook – it usually takes a few tries to get it right. I cannot imagine that NASA, which could not land the lunar module on Earth, nonetheless gave it a first try on the Moon! With two astronauts aboard, no less.

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Whipped ‘Em Again, Josie

Dave Klausler, author of this piece, says it may not be for everyone. I read it, found it delightful and insightful, and cannot imagine anyone on this blog would take offense at an occasional f-bomb. It’s about a movie, The Outlaw Josie Wales, and I am scratching my head now wondering if I ever saw it. It came out in 1976, and our first born was either coming or had arrived, and while the kids were young, I just didn’t go to movies. I missed most of the big ones, Star Wars, ET, Rocky. I did take my two daughters to see Gremlins in 1984 while on Long Island (anything to get away from family), and had to pull the youngest one out from under her seat as we left early. This was the movie that inspired the “PG” rating.

Anyway, an enjoyable piece from DSK, the Old Badger. (Tyrone, if you read this, I’d like to hear your take on The Outlaw Josie Wales.)

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Micrometeorite dangers in space

I draw your attention to the article linked here, How Do You Shield Astronauts and Satellites from Deadly Micrometeorites?

A caveat or two: Regarding the matter of the possibility of space travel, I am currently on the fence. But the International Space Station, if real, would be in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO), and so would have atmosphere to bounce off. Are there astronauts aboard? I have my doubts, but cannot prove or disprove any of it. The whole thing could be part of the ongoing hoax started in 1957 when the USSR launched Sputnik.

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Apollo 11: Something went somewhere

Note to readers: This post originally appeared in 2019, and has in it evidence that Apollo 11 was severely under-powered, and had no astronauts or space capsule aboard. It was merely ditched in the Atlantic, its sole purpose to fulfill JFK’s 1961 pledge to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. It does not address the Apollo 12-17, which never left lower earth orbit, but were on some other mission, the supposed moon landings part of what Neil Armstrong called “Truth’s Protective Layers.”
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Apollo 11 launch
Launch of Apollo 11, July 16, 1969

Few of us remember the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs that led to Apollo 11, the one that landed men on the moon. So mention of Apollo 6 is not going to ring any bells. This mission, unmanned, was a test of the Saturn 5 rocket engines, and was fraught with difficulties. The destination was low earth orbit (LEO), and the entire craft suffered from “pogo oscillations,” or a vibration that would eventually cause mission failure if not remedied. Think of driving down the highway with a bad tire.Eventually the vibrations will cause other failures.

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