Occupation of Independence

 Now that You Tube is flooded with fake (AI) videos, people have to make a decision.  Are they going to waste their lives watching crap produced by a computer algorithm, or will they go back to books, the written word.  Of course the world of books isn't perfect either. I don't know if we can reasonably expect any improvements in the world of books .  But there are possible improvements in how we read.  Do you feel guilty unless you read the lumber from cover to cover?  Do you really benefit from 400 pages of verbiage about a topic, no matter how potentially interesting and important the topic is?  For the most part, reading is an unnatural and tedious way to kill time. But it has advantages. Perhaps reading should imitate what I have recently advertised about walking: that we need to 'unclench the fists' while walking; we need to forget about 'how far? and how fast?'; that we need to frolic like a dog, investigating an arroyo. Thinking along these ...

Aren't you surprised by the alarmism that pervades the media coverage of winter storms ?  I envy the people in the High Sierra ( Donner Pass and Truckee ) for their glorious snowstorms.  Granted, difficulty with driving can create emergencies in some situations.   But there are a lot of false crises, resulting from driving too fast, driving without chains, and poor planning with household supplies.  These result from thinking that mother nature is not supposed to have an effect on human life, and that one day is supposed to be just like all the others. I have watched ten videos from the High Sierra and fluttered my eyelashes through all of them.  Yes, that could be simple hypocrisy.  Arizona in the winter provides great sleeping weather , no insects, hardly any mud, and sunny skies. But there is something ignoble about comfort.  The soul yearns for a rigorous test and challenge, something grander and nobler, such as they are getting in the Hi...

 The news from Britain is hard to believe: the Starmer regime is practicing censorship that seems completely un-British.  Think of how this turns its back on centuries of proud English traditions.  Maybe this is a good thing because it give the modern English a chance to show some of the heroism that their ancestors showed.  Or maybe the greatness shown by a country happens only once, and is never to be seen again. I have read quite a bit of history, but does it really help to judge modern England's chances to recover? A great decision also faces Americans.  Are they content to go the way of declining, bankrupt, overly militarized empires?  Will they reclaim at least some of the Constitution that is currently being flushed down the toilet by Trump?  My guess is that America is unredeemable.  Let's hope Britain at least produces some good news.

 The other day I was trying to make a loop out of a ride in a canyon area.   This caused me to return on a paved highway for a bit longer than I usually do, these days.  In fact, I usually avoid paved roads because there are too many cars driving too fast, with drivers who are too distracted. After returning home, I lapsed into the deep, mid-day trance that always happened during my road cycling years.  It had been so long that I had forgotten about it.  There is nothing in this old world of ours that beats a reverie or daydream after exercise, while hearing or imagining a musical score by John Barry , Bernard Herrmann , or Patrick Doyle .  It seems more restful than sleep itself, and better yet, you are conscious of it while it is happening. How common is this trait?  How would you even know?  It isn't exactly what most people would call an athletic talent, but it might be a talent that actually does more good.  Little is said about th...