I don’t know how many of our readers here have ever traveled across Wyoming, either west to east or north to south, or visa versa. The western one-third of the state is beautiful, with Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Wind River Mountains, to name a few outstanding highlights. But getting there … say you enter the state via Gillette on I-80 traveling west. You’ll encounter high winds and blowing dust, pronghorn for hundreds of miles of what must be one of the busiest semi-truck highways in the country. It is almost unbearable.

There are miles upon miles of unsettled land in Wyoming. As much as 30% of the state is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). If you are unfamiliar with our public land hierarchy, it goes like this:

Continue reading “Are our state populations overstated? World?” →

I am a mere observer and do not take much of “news” seriously. Yet the essential meaning of news stories penetrates the consciousness of the mass of humans so easily that it can be distressing. So much of what appears to be human stupidity is really just indifference based on trust, and it is trust that is the great human failing here.

Some years back I was in a conversation with a relative about some thing or event, and in passing suggested either a book or an article, some form of written reference to help support whatever claim I was making. “Oh, we don’t read” was the answer I got, so don’t bother sending along anything. Much later on, same company and playing a card game that had special rules in the various cards, I was repeatedly reminded that I had not read a card correctly. Asshole that I am, I replied “Oh, I don’t read.” My reference was not taken kindly to the two who knew what I was talking about. I could not help myself, as the idea of not reading has such large implications, and I lack filters.

Continue reading “Non-readers, plants, influencers, staged events” →

Climatologist Judith Curry announced she is retiring her blog, Climate Etc.  She has an impressive CV, which I will not detail here, and more than that, I’ve always enjoyed her writing and combativeness. Michael Mann, the seemingly psychopathic pseudoscientist, took pains one time to claim that her relationship with a divorced man at Penn State was “sleeping her way to the top.” He did so in a public email, finding Curry to be particularly dislikable, to her credit.

Continue reading “Judith Curry, farewell to arms, Roger Pielke Jr. scattering ♥’s all about the landscape” →

As usual, the true worthy commentary of the day comes from comedians.

The Strait of Hormuz, I never went so fast from not knowing something existed to talking about it all the time since the air fryer. (Jimmy Carr)

There’s something to be said for reading over other means of ingesting information, as long as we follow Daniel Boortsin’s advice, that we “Classify, make inferences, reason, and practice, practice, practice.” Other forms of receipt of information are less useful:

Television and other electronic forms: I created, not intentionally but rather by blurting a while back, a bit at a kerfuffle at a family gathering when someone mentioned some news item, and I observed that the effects of television news were not just belief, but instant belief. From there I was castigated with the usually defensive nonsense, that people get “news” from more than one source, that the Wall Street Journal is reliable, and that no one really takes TV news seriously anyway. A grandson mentioned reading something, and I said reactively to the overall tone of rebuke that “Paper doesn’t refuse ink”, which brought about laughter. That’s a saying I remember via my mother from my grandmother, a school teacher.

Continue reading “The age of enlightenment begins, 8/6/1945” →

Last Friday I was washing windows. In our dining room we have four windows that are too high to reach, and require an extension ladder. I have one of those, and old one, but functional. The problem with it is sharp corners, as I learned that day.

I remember fixing a toilet in the last few years and in a tight space where it is so hard to reach the seat bolts. I have a power wrench that comes in handy, and so used it to reach the back bolts that were otherwise hard to get at, and I let one go too long and the entire toilet fell apart before my eyes. Ceramic will do that. Months later I related this story to my cousin’s husband, and he said “You never want to use a power tool on a toilet.” That was such obvious advice that I wanted to slap him, but instead I said “Now you tell me.” (I like the guy. He’s a musician, a piano/horn player, and a really good one. Deep inside I want to be a musician. They tried to recruit me for my singing voice in high school. I regret turning them down. It never occurred to me to say yes.)

Continue reading “Senior citizen tales” →

I decided that I have to let the last post go, as doing more work on it is pointless. As it is, when I do face splits, it is very rare to get any alignment at all, but when the eyes, nose, mouth and head shape all line up, it is a bingo in my book. What about plastic surgery? They can’t do much, but they can do some. With Bill Hicks, for instance, it was apparent that they inserted a piece of plastic or something in the nose to straighten it out. But the nose was still in the exact same location on his face. They cannot change that. They cannot change the shape of the skull or location of the eyes, most critical in making comparisons. They cannot raise or lower ears – they can only tuck them.

What about when a person ages? It does not change alignment of features. They are hardwired in our skulls. Fat accumulates in eye sockets, ears elongate, chins double and then triple, but it is the same face underneath.

With Sam Cooke I found what clearly was a set of twins, and set it up as follows, one photo of Twin #1 superimposed on five of the other:

None of them align! In fact, the all misalign in the very same manner. What does that mean? It’s easy: Two of them.

Continue reading “Iksrakot” →

I am going to talk about something that I’ve never written about before, but to preface the remarks, it’s not private, and though it was at that time of my life, it is not important.

It has to do with becoming a CPA, and what it takes. At the time I passed the exam, in the early 1980s, it was a completely bluebook pencil-driven affair. We answered multiple choice questions; we wrote essays; and solved long problems in a show-your-work style.

It was my understanding at that time that only five percent of candidates did as I did, and passed all five parts on first attempt. I’ll get that part out of the way, in the “what it says about me” department. One, it means I’m pretty smart, at accounting anyway. I’m not terribly smart in many ways. But more than that, it says that I knew how to take a test. I didn’t sweat it, never sweated tests in college, and yet, for sure, I did not ace them all, not even close.  I was not an A student. However, I was always relaxed, and on tests usually done before everyone else and busy checking and rechecking my work. Some people I knew sweated and panicked. Even though they were smart and capable they were not good at testing. That’s a shame. There should be a better way for those who study hard, have the knowledge, but do not test well. I do not know the answer there.

Continue reading “Bouncing off rocks, landing in a beautiful pool” →