Occupation of Independence

 Whether the written word is obsolete or not might seem like an over-the-top question.  But before deciding too quickly, let me ask you when was the last time you did a long division problem with pen and paper?  Or even addition or multiplication? I do multiplication mentally when calculating the prepay price of gasoline.  But I do the multiplication in a weird sort of spatial/geometric way, not much like how we did multiplication in grade school. Or play this game: imagine a 75 year old comparing today with the year of their birth, 1950.  I find it even more interesting to go back 75 years from their year of birth, 1950.  What sort of predictions would somebody have made in 1875 about what 1950 would look like? Another way to ask the question is: why was writing invented in the first place? 1.  Semi-permanent records of kings and gods, inscribed into stone or clay tablets.  Even papyrus lasted a lot longer than a human lifetime.  The same w...

  In principle the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II is an excellent opportunity to revisit the misinformation and myths that many Americans subscribe to.   Larry Johnson has done a good job of that at sonar21.com .  I hope many more writers take on the myth. After 80 years it would be so nice if America finally said, "Why are we still in NATO?  Let the Europeans run NATO." But of course powerful lobbies want to keep the gravy flowing.  So the post-World War II American empire will linger on.  Still, I want to cling to a little bit of hope that the 80th anniversary will have some effect on how Americans think. Doing an internet search of iconic World War II photos seemed like a good idea.  Here is the photo that captures the myth better than any other: It  is natural for a Baby Boomer like me to relate to this photo.  It reminds us how coterminous we were with the American Empire.

When was the last time you read a clay tablet?  How about a papyrus scroll?  It is getting to be that way with paper-and-ink books.  eBooks represent genuine progress.  But something more fundamental is at stake. Regardless of the physical medium of a book, the real problem is that a book is a gigantic pile of information that is mostly useless and therefore tedious to shovel through.   Books are one-directional.  They are not conversational and lively. Maybe Twitter (X) has the right idea: the written word still has value, but say what you want to say in a paragraph or two, and then shut up.  Let somebody else respond.    I am being too hard to please, because on You Tube I start thinking of new complaints: why so many talking heads?  Who needs video?  A radio or podcast would work just as well.  And why so many non-rhotic English accents? It is ironic to be writing about this because yesterday I had the best conversation...

Southern Idaho.    What goes through a traveler's mind when going through a new town?  Perhaps they want to quickly put the town into some well-known category.  It was fun the other day to be confused about a town I was seeing for the first time.  I was even having trouble thinking of the right adjectives.  Finally, "solid" and "underwhelming" seemed best. Everything did its best to be unflashy, untouristy, and unpicturesque.   Most people think that the American cowboy, where he actually still exists, is picturesque and romantic.  But this is what the town gave me, instead: It is easy to see why an ATV (quad) is more practical than a horse, especially with all the downstream-of-Yellowstone lava around.  The vaquero did not even glance at me, despite how rare it is to see a camper in this area.  The vacas paid us little attention, as well.  But when El Toro came by my camp and registered some complaints, I decided to change ...