Capitan Yack and Captain Jackson

Hola Carolyn,


We continue our hole in the wall gang style hiding out here in Merida.


Been travelling about and lazing about. Latest trip was just today to Celestun on the Gulf Coast. It's the place with all the pink flamingoes and while the whole flamingoes thing is kitchy-cheesy and lawn ornament stuff for us it's really kinda freaky to be in a boat in the midst of a couple of thousand of the ones that actually move.  BTW, they're quite a bit bigger than the Walmart variety.

 Lotsa other sea birds too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also went through some mangrove areas with the occasional crocodile and other such flora and fauna. Didn't stick my fingers out of the boat so I still have all of them. Need them all with me to play pool when I return, you know.  Got back hoping to get this entry out yesterday evening

 

 

but it must have been all of that fresh air in the boat and on the beach because we were sporting long eyelids not too long after the dinner hour and decided the better path was to bed down and live to fight another day.  And  now is that other day is here.

 

 

 

 

 

Those pics from Sarajevo in your last entry got to me immediately. I was over there for three weeks about the same time Zack was there I believe, but well before I got into the whole Wormhole Electric thing. Two of the weeks were in Sarajevo proper. In fact an early draft of the story that evolved into The Three Miracles of Djerzelez that I had a chance to read included details that actually made me feel I was back there. Got to see a lot of this historic city including many of those streets you probably travelled that got narrower and narrower and sometimes ended abruptly on the edge of one of these hills and mountains that ring the city and made the siege so much like shooting fish in a barrel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I was at those ski jumps in early April and saw first hand the shell craters and crumbling that the almost four year siege visited upon them.  Walking through many parts of Sarajevo proper invariably included seeing and sometimes even stepping around shell craters and rocket attack evidence . The apartment complex I stayed at with my friends has walls that were pocked marked with it. A bird nesting inside one became known to us as " Shelly" in fact. 

 

 I remember  how sad and depressed I felt when I realized that the religious and political differences that fuelled this whole saddening display go back almost two millennia and you could just tell that they weren’t going to be fading away anytime soon. Alas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alas also the next item on todays agenda has a distinct element of bloodshed to it as well. I brought lotsa reading with me. All of it, almost, was on my trusty old I-pad.  The one  paper and ink item came from one of my 8-ball team cohorts.  She entrusted me with her copy of  S.C. Gwynne's  “ Empire of the Summer Moon “ and told me I’d “really” like it.

 

 

 

I've not has such a time with a book for quite awhile. The cover blurbs are effusive “ transcendant “ “ will leave dust and blood on your jeans “ and “ nothing short of a revelation” .  Puffery ??  Except that this is from The New York Times Book Review. The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune and Cleveland Plain Dealer  reviews echo these . I have to agree completely. I really couldn’t put it down at times.

 

 

　

The Commanches nearly succeeded in bringing the flow of “ pilgrims, land-grabbers, sod-busters, Forty-niners and a nation with galloping expansionist urges “ to a standstill. Prior to that they had halted the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and the French expansion westward from Louisana. Settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States found their frontier initially being rolled back by Commanches responding to the invasion of their tribal lands and wholesale slaughter of their buffalo herds. Initially the Commanches were simply beyond the ken and understanding of those invading civilizations in their methods and sheer savagery.

 

 As the map reveals, they were almost in your backyard, Carolyn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

I don’t think I've ever read a book with as much violent and graphic subject matter as this. It was not the way of the Commanches to spare lives in their attacks on settlers and on other tribes. Any victims captured were either killed or taken back to be tortured and killed at their camps later. The most valuable proceeds of any raid were horses. Although sometimes women and girls were taken as hostages for bartering purposes at a later date.

 

 

 Gwynne doesn't dwell on this for shock value so much as to be true to history.  He passes on quite matter-of-factly the discovery by family members and settlers who escaped one attack, of victims who had been dismembered and had their fingers cut off and stuffed into their mouths as well as others whose bloated torsos were full of arrows to the extent that they resembled grotesque porcupines.

 

 

 

  Yet I found myself moving on through it steadily to see what would happen next. That’s a bit unsettling on its face but if you really think about it its, as has been always said the way of the west, or of any clash between oppressors and those seeking to oppress. Gwynne points out that this kind of frenzied warfare goes hand in hand with a nomadic lifestyle. The Celts of fifth century northern Europe were similar in their fierceness, effectiveness and absolute domination of those who they went up against. Only, it appears, when peoples become rooted on the land and agrarian in their ways, does a moderating and civilizing influence blossom.

 

 

 

 

The Commanches superior horsemanship was as much to credit for their superiority as anything else.
Almost from birth Commanche braves were being taught to tame, ride and almost become symbiotic with their ponies. Uncounted centuries of hunting buffalo on horseback certainly helped as well.



 They were only finally overcome by a group who, essentially, mimicked their methods and fierceness - The Texas Rangers.

"The Rangers were a rough bunch. " Gwynne notes. " They drank hard and liked killing and fist fighting and knife-fighting and executing people they deemed criminals or enemies." As he was further unfolding his description of the Rangers I started to get a tweak. A bit further on he talks about many being " large, physically imposing men " and had names like "Bigfoot "Wallace, " Alligator " Davis and " Old Paint " Caldwell, all reflecting a characteristic or accomplishment of the bearer. The tweak was getting stronger.

 

When he got to the man considered to be the most feared of all Rangers, John Coffee Hays, I was starting to feel that I'd been here before.


 " He was the uber -Ranger, the one everyone wanted to be like, the one who was braver, smarter and cooler under fire than any of the rest of them."  Later Gwynne also observes, " Hays had other attributes as well; he was extremely cautious where his men's safety was concerned, and almost motherly in his care of them when they were wounded." - I think I know this guy, Don is thinking to himself by now.





  He was known as Jack Hays and to the Commanches who came to fear him the most he was only known as " Capitan Yack" . Okay, I said to myself, is this a coincidence or is this real life inspiration for  the Captain Jackson I've encountered on a number of occasions? You'll have to ask the author for me next time you are in touch.

Well, I had hoped to get to the two Halberstam tomes I've been referring to on and off over the last little bit but I think I will pull up the reins here for this time around. That is to be for another time. One item I did find out in my adventures in Halberstam-ville shall be sadly noted here to finish out the violence that seems to be awash in this installment.

 Ironically, David Halberstam whose 800 page examination of the mortal shakeup in the north-American auto industry I am just finishing off was killed in 2007 in a car crash. Alas


Alas, too. There shall be no riddle this time. Lets just say its siesta time for riddles for a bit.


That's it for now.


Don




Empire book cover - npr.org
Commanche horsemen - bonanzaboomers.com
Texas Rangers. - en.wikipedia.org
Jack Hays - Houston.culturemap.com
 

 

 

　

　

　

　


　

　

　



　
 

 

 

 

 

 

Bosnia, Changes at Wormhole, Wired Generation

Advert: Have a good mystery story you'd like to share? We're a publishing company! Contact us!

clv241@gmail.com 

Good Morning, Don!

Sounds like you are having a right nice time tucked away in the warmer regions of North America. I loved your pictures of the church and the streets of the area you are in.  And your description of the houses being made out of concrete and stone and how that turns them into acoustic delights made me laugh. I remember singing and playing and laughing in an apartment stairwell as a child  that was made out of concrete – the residences of the apartment building finally asked me to please go home!  

 You mentioned Bosnia, Sarajevo and the war. You’re right, when our son first said they were going to Bosnia, I was a bit concerned! But I talked to a gentleman whose daughter had just recently transferred back from there (she is a human rights litigationist). He told me the kids would be safer in Bosnia than they would be on the streets of New York. I did some research, I was okay after that.

 Your street pictures reminded me of several streets we took in Sarajevo that to me were not even the width of an alley. I’ve been seeing in the Yahoo News the derelict ski jumps left over from the 1984 Olympics in Bosnia. What the news reporters fail to report is that there are land mines all over the ski areas. Even if the ski jumps were in good condition, the landing could be bit dicey.

It is interesting that we’d talk about Bosnia – The Three Miracles of Djerzelez (a story we’ve been publishing) takes place in and around Sarajevo and Mostar. It concludes next month. Fine story! Filled with intrigue, mystery, murder, mafia, mayhem, monsters, witches… all the good stuff.

I just finished the first round of judging for sowrite.us.com. Great entries! My fellow judge and I had a tough time coming up with just 3 finalists. And actually, we begged to be allowed a 4^th finalist. The finalists now get to create another 3 sentence story. Watch for it! We are talking amazing gifted writers!

We’re going to be making some changes at Wormhole. I recently received a good mystery rough draft, but we don’t publish mystery… but it is a good story! So, being the publisher, I’ve made the executive decision to open up the genres to include mystery and more action adventure. It was suggested we accept romance, but I’m not familiar enough with the genre to be comfortable editing it.  

My review of literature for the Wired Generation continues. I think I mentioned last week that this new Millennial Generation is in many ways like the GI Generation also known as the Hero Archetype. Don, you and fit into the Prophet Archetype, and Generation X compares quite well with the Nomad Archetype.  We’re prophets, Don… do you believe it?

This week I’ve been looking into articles by socio-cultural psychologists and psychological learning theorists. Mostly it is about what we know about learning: it is sharing understanding; computers and technology dislocate students from instructors, self, peers; social interaction is necessary for learning; students learn what they want from the internet, interact by telling their friends about what they’ve learned…so what is missing from this equation? Mentors. Students are more often than not led by their peers, people who are on the same level they are on. 

Can personal/educational growth occur if the blind lead the blind?

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

Fig 1 – personal picture file

Images downloaded from Google Images;

Fig 2 – 1984 Ski jump Bosnia, Sarajevo retrieved from theinterrobang.com

Fig 3 – Blind Leading the Blind retrieved from cuntinglinguist.ocm

Fig 4 – Business mentor retrieved from www.entrepreneur.com

Out and about on the Yucatan

Hola Carolyn,


Hopefully you've conquered that cold you spoke of last time. It's one of those seldom spoken of fringe benefits of teaching that one gets a front row seat for all the latest bugs and viruses (or is it virii ? ) out there with the rest of the vox populi. Think how robust your immune system has become.



 Some answers to things you asked about last time. This is now  third year coming down here. Each time it has grown to a longer stay. Friends of ours in Owen Sound asked us to come down and stay in a small  guest house  (see left) they added on to the back end of a property they bought and renovated in the old central part of Merida. Both the main and guest houses (Casa and casita ) are modestly sized but well laid out and equipped. There's even a washer and dryer set in the casita. The dryer is yet to be utilized since the warm dry air and steady winds of most days can take care of a load of laundry in less time if you take a few moments to string up a temporary clothesline.


One small but welcome side-effect of the cement and stone structures we are in right now is that the acoustics are just great. It's like singing in one big tiled shower. I have a little Bluetooth speaker about the size of a mini-baguette that lets me access all my tunes on my I-pod.  Place it anywhere near a polished cement wall, in a corner especially and it almost becomes a stadium sized loudspeaker! - Muy Buenos!


  Couple all of this with a good Wi-Fi connection and walking distance to the historical centre and it's a pretty sweet setup all in all. My LSBH and I are under no illusions as to just how fortunate we are to have access to it. Our hosts have been encouraging family and other friends to come down but a surprising number of people still think of drug-related violence, killings and all sorts of other media induced negative images when they hear " Mexico " They  can't seem to get beyond that.  I will bet that when your son first went to Bosnia there was some of the same narrow reactions in some circles. I know there was for our friends who taught at the same school as he. People felt everyday life in Sarajevo included ducking sniper-fire and standing in breadlines.


I do believe both you and I have seen that first hand in that same city. There's no doubt that it was a war-zone, and not too long ago but it was as safe as most North American urban areas by that time.


Btw, it was not far from bizarre to hear about the zero temps in south China where he is now. Our friends were also there and all I ever picked up from our many Skype conversations  was about how oppressive the heat could be.


 Here on the Yucatan with its high percentage of indigenous peoples the vibe is completely different. In the 8 weeks in total we've been here I can't recall a situation where I have felt genuinely unsafe.

We spent the first two weeks with our hosts gadding about a bit and now that they have gone back to their place near Owen Sound, and very reluctantly back to their jobs and careers we will spend the next three weeks by ourselves. We'll put both places to bed for the hot wet summer here, just before we return.





Last time I told you about visiting the ruins at Mayapan. This time here's some details about our other major expedition. This was to Campeche on the coast on the opposite side of the peninsula to Cancun  and the more glittery Mayan Riveria area  ( Cozumel, etc., )


















It began as a 16th century Spanish colonial outpost to protect the area from the marauding pirates and privateers that were rife in the Gulf and Caribbean waters. It has carefully looked after the architecture from this period, especially the walled city with its 8 bastions and the two forts for the forces that manned them. They've done such a good job, in fact, that this area was declared a World Heritage Site in 1999. Both of the forts have turned into Maya culture museums.  The whole central square area is impressive and nothing short of immaculate in its overall condition. The church pic was actually taken from the balcony of a restaurant where we had lunch.


The surrounding historical centre has been similarly maintained. The four pics below came from me simply standing at an intersection and snapping pics of the street in all four directions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If there is a downside or trade-off for all of this picturesque grandeur it's the fact that the metropolitan area has now grown to over a quarter of a million. In order to get to this jewel at the centre one has to wade through lots of strip-malls, mega-plazas, fast-food outlets and the other attachments that come with urban sprawl. Of course, all of this spawns traffic, traffic and yet more traffic, too. The fast-food and retail big players that we see around us in North America are equally represented here as well.   Political colonialism may be past but economic colonialism is alive and kicking up dust, litter and exhaust fumes.

 

 

 



Carolyn, I'd hoped to get into some of the reading that I've been able to do down here but I think I'll save that for the next entry. I brought one hard-cover book and a slew of things on my trusty old I-pad. The paper item is proving to be one of the most provocative reading experiences I've had in a bit - but I'm not quite sure why.  Plus, I've ploughed through almost 2400 pages of David Halberstam now, and that been engrossing as well. Now that there's just the two of us I expect to up the reading ante again.

More on that later.

 

Also, consider the riddles put on hold for this time.

 

 Hasta luego!

Don





Meteors, the Jet Stream and The Fourth Turning Generations

Good Morning, Don,

I was thrilled to hear that you made it out of the snowy north before the next round of snow and cold. I loved the picture of you in Mexico with your northern duds on. And that bus! What a behemoth! Was it as comfortable as it looked? You said the air conditioning rivaled the cold you’d just escaped.

I remember the total disconnect I had between cold Colorado weather and warm Hawaiian weather in December. People were running around in shorts and flip flops… and even though I was sweating in my hoodie, knees socks and heavy shoes, I had trouble adjusting my mind to warm in December!

We talked to our son in China, just northwest of Hong Kong, last night (Skype) and they are experiencing record cold – zero degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I remember when they transferred from Bosnia last August and they said they were giving away their heavy coats and most of their blankets. I wanted to say then that maybe they should keep something. But they were so sure it would always be warm. They bought a small heater and are now more comfortable.

I read that it is suspected that as the Artic warms up, the jet stream will dip a bit more south and that will cause winters in the northeast to be longer and colder. All that fresh water we’re pumping into the environmental system has to go somewhere.

Don, did you know that a rather large meteorite is going to pass by Earth tomorrow? I won’t be able to see it, but NASA will live stream it. The United Nations is calling for a global effort to get together and work out united efforts on how to deal with meteorites. That should be interesting.

I agree with you, it is amazing how fast things grow when they have constant sunlight and water. So how long have you been going south for the winter? I’m just trying to figure out how many feet a year the trees are growing. Do people mow lawns there? We noticed in Hawaii that most lawns were a different type of grass that spread out instead of getting tall.

I noticed you were on the VW hunt again. I saw the VW turned truck. The VW would actually make a decent small truck. I was sorry to hear that they are now coming out at night - didn't you say that night was the time for all good people to be tucked quietly into their own compounds? 

I remember last year you were devastated by people texting and talking on their phones while they were walking the ruins. Did you see much of that this year? It doesn’t look like the local reptile population will be joining the Wired Generation any time soon. Just how big was that lizard you took a picture of? Without any references, he looked big enough to rival the dragons!

I loved your description of fashion conscious. I noticed a large number of young women wearing tights and mirco thin thigh high stiletto leather boots early last week when our temperatures blushed out of the single digits. They said their feet were cold and they just didn’t understand! They had boots on!

I’ve been working on the Wired Generation project. As I’ve read more and more about them, their characteristics seemed familiar, like another generation I’d read about. With the help of a librarian friend, I was able to track down a book I’d read years ago called The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe.

Their theory is that there are 4 generation archetypes that have continually shown up in American History since the 1600s – the hero, the artist, the prophet and the nomad. The Millennials are very similar in attitude to the GI Generation of the 30s, 40s, and 50s (the Hero archetype). Their theory is that Boomers are the Prophets and Generation X is the Nomad. I’ll read more about it today. This concept definitely opens up a new thought line about this generation.

Larry shared a link with me that I think is a most excellent representation for this generation.

I confess that I have an outstanding cold! Riddles are the last thing on my mind at this moment. All I really want to do is crawl back into bed, so I’m going to not do riddles week. I appreciate your entry, Don. But my mind is clogged up and your words aren’t registering for me at all. Let your riddle ride to next week.

For those of you who haven’t yet but are thinking about it… join the sowrite.us writing contest! And hurry up! I’m a judge and I’ve been reading the entries and they are amazing! But we can always use more entries! Besides! It is FREE!!

As to my own writing, for those of you who are “older women” or know “older women”, check out my newnon-fiction book on estrogen and women. I learned a lot from the project and I’ve included a large number of resources, some diet and exercise ideas. It is a pre-primer to get women started on the rest of their healthy lives.

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

Images downloaded from google images

Fig 1 – Everything you know about getting warm retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com

Fig 2 – What causes jet streams retrieved from www.weatherquestions.com

Fig 3 – book cover retrieved from amazon.com

Fig 4 – Aug 11 retrieved from integralleadershipreviewed.com 

The Escape Succeeds and the Bugs Come Out at Night

Hi Carolyn,  (or should I say "Hola")


So, here we are again in Merida, Mexico indulging in another few weeks of thumbing our once cold noses at old man you-know-who.

 

 

 

The escape began with a 5 am trip to Toronto’s Pearson Airport. We leapt into the air just hours before that Texas Low we were talking about awhile back rolled into the area and let loose with another slow stampede of snow. I’m sure nobody noticed  the passenger in seat 12A letting loose with a fist-pump as the wheels left the runway .





Five hours later, deplaned and thru the customs gauntlet, finds us standing around Cancun Airport sweating in our Canadian/Canadien garb and awaiting the intercity coach to Merida. The siesta effect was already making itself felt. By mid-afternoon it seemed like we’d been up for most of a day. Still a four hour bus ride to go.






Ironically, the highway coach for this leg is air-conditioned to the max - a rolling refrigeration unit. The lined hoodie I whipped off when I hit the warm humid air at the airport in Cancun was back on after about an hour.






These behemoths are almost land bound airliners. All that’s missing is the flight crew. The first movie is the original Spiderman with Spanish overdubs. Picture’s fine but the whirr of the air conditioning, the mariachi music the driver is playing for himself ( I always like to sit where I can see out the front ) and the hum of the highway make it pretty-well inaudible. I’d never seen the flick so it’s even engrossing under these conditions. Boy, CGI just continues to get better, doesn’t it.




Got to Merida too late and too tired to jump right out and scout about. That would start next day. Some early observations from our third year in Merida:

The kitschy shops for the "touristos" are as jam-packed and colorful as ever.  Funny, I don't remember any Mayan pirates, though!







The place we stay at has a banana and a sour orange tree in the small courtyard just behind our casita. They were planted as waist-high saplings by our hosts a few months before our first stay. Both are now close to 20 feet in height. There is a big bunch of green fruit on the banana tree. Now I understand what Harry Belafonte was singing about. Some grass seed the owners planted to fill patchy spots in the yard has grown almost three inches in six short days. Things grow fast here!




The first day out on the streets made me wonder where the VW’s had gone. Their numbers seemed very sparse. It was while walking to the centre of historical Merida “ Centro “ that evening to find a place for dinner that I realized that they hadn’t been all hauled away to the scrap heap. The bugs came out at night. Their variety and ubiquity has only slightly diminished so far as I can see. There are still lots of beetle rattletraps about. They just seem to hide in the shadows more.




Here's the best one I've seen so far. I only had a momentary break in traffic to snap this pic, otherwise I’d have gotten closer. It’s a goodie, though!

We and our hosts, who also live near Owen Sound,  rented a little econobox and drove to some places of interest outside of Merida itself. The most notable so far has been Mayapan, another Mayan ruins site. This one's not nearly as huge and expansive as those at Uxmal and Chichen-Itza that usually grace the postcards. This area is often referred to as a mini-Chichen-Itza, we learned, as it displays the same type of architecture in the main pyramids.

While it was smaller it was no less entrancing. Its hard not to wander about in the eerie quietness and wonder just what it must have been like when this area was at its zenith and the place was teeming with Mayan life. We were there on a most unbusy day and shared the ruins with a fair number of reptilian occupants only, most of the time.




Anyhow, enough Mexican noodlings for the moment. We”ll be holed up here for another month so there will be plenty more to come.





The tendency to forgo comfort for style is still on display here as well, especially on the weekends downtown among teens and twenty or thirty-somethings. It must be treacherous to try and pick ones way through the rough and sometimes crumbling curbs and walkways of the centuries old inner city with all manner of traffic hurtling by only inches away while atop some of the impossibly high stiletto heels and in circulation sapping fashion denims.

I've just cracked open the one paper and ink piece of reading I brought along and its been most fascinating.  More on that later in the stay.

Ariba! Ariba!  To the cave of riddles we must now go, amigos.

My last one was snow - gone but not forgotten! I can only guess clothes hangers for yours from last time. My mind hasn’t been in riddle mode for a bit. I've not had time yet to build up a new stash of them. How ‘bout this one for this week:

 

 

 

Dug from the earth

 Wheeled around

Dressed up, painted up, fired up

And gobbled up by the gringos 

 

 

 

Adios for now,

 

 

Don

　

　

　



　

Silly people and Winners

Good morning, Don. Hopefully you are enjoying the radiant warmth of the south and that your trip there was uneventful.

I’m in good company with your better half – I’ve been watching the ice team dancing this morning instead of getting this blog done. Time to tear myself away! Marvelous! The Russian Team was exceptional! I kept thinking they weren’t doing any jumps or throws – I had to remember that ice team dancing doesn’t allow that. I admire the grace, the flow, the team work that goes into making such a difficult routine look flawless.

I’m envious of your time to read! I have been reading student papers – Heinlein they are not. We did finally make it to a bookstore yesterday. We took 3 hours wandering around, sampling this and that… we both came home with books to read. I love a good murder mystery so I picked the latest in the cat in the library series, and I also picked the first book of a new sci fi fantasy series – a new author for me. I’ll let you know how they turn out. I’m really cautious about reading books in the middle of the quarter – I get so involved that I will put off absolutely everything (including dinner and sleep) to finish the book. Not a good idea when you have 100 students waiting for their papers to be graded.

I’m scheduled to judge the latest writing contest with sowrite.us.com One of our Wormhole writers, Tamara, is also judging. I’m really excited! Anyone interested in participating – come on along and join the fun! This contest the participants also get to judge. I believe the adventure is to write a story in 3 sentences. Curious? Join in!

We got Transport 28 up on Amazon and samples up on the website. It is a unique group of stories! I’m finishing the content editing for March’s ezine, Transport 29. I keep trying to put Ariel’s Telepath’s Song off – I want it to linger and to savor the story. But all good stories must be revealed sometime. Ariel is currently rewriting it into a screen play! Not sure when she’ll have time! Next weekend it is likely that she’ll be in Boston for the BOSKONE. She’s also involved in the planning for CONTATA 7 in Morristown, N.J., and a filk AAconvention. We’re running part 2 of the Telepath’s Song in March.

Okay, so we’ve probably talked to death the weather. So I thought I would talk about the silly things people do in winter. For example: my husband and I were walking through the parking lot after a night class last week and we saw people had pulled their windshield wipers up off the front window. I’m assuming it is to keep the wipers from freezing to the windshield. Okay. I get that. We walked by one set of wipers that had long fuzzy sweat socks over them…Another example: I was standing in a Starbucks, watching it snow and blow, the temperature was maybe zero. Everyone around me was dressed in heavy winter coats, scarves, hats, gloves. A woman dressed in a flimsy plunging neck see through blouse, light jacket, heels that must have been 3 inches high, short short skirt that barely covered her tushie, no coat, no scarf, no gloves came in … she tossed her long brown hair and announced, “I’m cold!” I don’t think there was a straight face in the place. No one rushed to give her a coat.

I have a couple of others, but I’ll save them for another day.

In the riddle cave: Soup it was! And I made more this morning.

And I have no idea what you’re riddling about! My mind just isn’t clicking into any kind of answer that makes sense. Uncle!

For your viewing pleasure:

Plastic and steel

Pointed and blunt

Hanging around to help

Hang around

Have a great week everyone!

Carolyn

All images downloaded from google images:

Fig 1 – Planning your trip retrieved from www.differentworld.com

Fig 2 – Russia takes early lead retrieved from wintergames.ap.org

Fig 3 – PHD Comics: Lather, rinse, repeat retrieved from www.phdcomics.com

Fig 4 – How to change wipers retrieved from www.instructables.com

Fig 5 – wipers and socks by Hertha, B. retrieved from www.flickr.com

Power to the people

Hi Carolyn,





  I very much enjoyed your Sherlockian musings from last weekend. What an absolutely indelible and endurable cast of characters  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created. Holmes, Watson and even Moriarty are probably going to be timeless. I do agree that the movies with Robert Downey  are thoroughly in the Rock 'em Sock 'em vein, though. 



I'm aghast, however, that you left out Sherlock Hemlock and think, perchance,  that Mr. Cumberbatch might be a tad miffed and perplexed as well.






 Only recently I noticed that we actually have the first seasons of Downton Abbey and Sherlock on DVD, courtesy of our daughter, and simply haven't gotten around to them. I'd take them to Mexico with us but I can pretty well guarantee that my LSBH will, when time permits, be following the Olympics as assiduously as Sherlock pursues his cases.  Hence,  they would simply languish in the luggage.  


My weather induced house arrest gave me gad about time in cyberspace and this entry contains some of the fruits thereof. 



In 1942 Robert Heinlein published " Waldo " in Astounding Fiction Magazine.  In 1950 it was paired with another of his novellas, "Magic Inc." and published as a book.

 

 

 I read Heinleins Glory Road in 1964 and was hooked . As usual, once bitten I grab as many of the authors works as I can and just get immersed. Waldo & Magic Inc. was in that frenetic first wave of reading. Among other things,  it is often referred to as a having presaged the whole science of nanotechnology.   The  Da Vinci Robot that ever so delicately snatched my prostate out a few years ago is operated by a "waldo" system. - But, I digress slightly. 






One of the things in Waldo that has stayed with me in a " that is so cool " context ever since was Heinleins " radiant energy " concept. Basically, it was  energy transmitted through the air and used to power anything from small appliances to all manner of vehicles just by having them fitted with a " dekalb receptor".  A radical idea in the 1940's but much more conceivable now I think. Super cheap and super abundant energy is one of the holy grails of scientific research .



As a regular at the Gizmag.com bar, three articles about energy from alternate sources I read recently really brought me back to this whole idea in a science fiction becoming science fact way.


The first article came from Darren Quick on Jan. 23 and dealt with producing aviation fuels from desert vegetation. The next three paragraphs, and the pic,  are from his article.

Whenever the topic of plant-derived biofuels is raised, the issue of turning valuable arable land over to the task of growing feedstock is generally not far behind. A discovery by the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SRBC) that desert plants fed by seawater can produce biofuel more efficiently than other well-known feedstocks could help alleviate such concerns.

The SRBC, which is affiliated with the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, is receiving funding from Boeing, Etihad Airways and Honeywell UOP to develop and commercialize a sustainable biofuel that emits 50 to 80 percent less carbon through its lifecycle than fossil fuels. Plants called halophytes, which are highly salt tolerant, could be the answer.

SRBC researchers found that halophyte seeds contain oil suitable for biofuel production and that the entire shrub-like plant can be turned into biofuel more effectively than many other feedstocks.


A few days before that an article from Ben Coxworth had to do with creating better batteries from, of all things, sugar. The next three paragraphs  and the pic  are from his article:

Even today's best rechargeable lithium batteries do lose their ability to hold a charge after a while, and are considered toxic waste once discarded. In just a few years, however, they may be replaced by batteries that are refillable and biodegradable, and that will also have a higher energy density yet a lower price ... and they'll run on sugar.

"Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature," says Virginia Tech's Prof. Y.H. Percival Zhang, who is leading the research. "So it's only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery."

Zhang's isn't the first experimental sugar battery, although he claims that its energy density is "an order of magnitude higher than others."



Finally, the most intriguing article of all dealt with producing energy from humidity. Darren Quick posted an article on Jan. 27th about humidity as a power source. The illustration and next three paragraphs are taken from that posting:

Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D., believes that water evaporation is the largest power source in nature. In an effort to demonstrate the potential of this untapped resource, Sahin and his fellow researchers have created prototype electrical generators with rubber sheets that move in response to changes in humidity thanks to a coating of bacterial spores.
In a 2012 study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Sahin, along with Wyss Institute Core Faculty member L. Mahadevan, Ph.D., and Adam Driks,Ph.D., a professor of microbiology and immunology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, detailed how a soil bacterium called Bacillus subtilis dries up to become a tough, wrinkled, dormant spore. These spores can then be almost immediately restored to their original shape when taking on water.

With their ability to shrink reversibly, the researchers realized the spores must be storing energy. In an effort to measure the energy of the spores, Sahin coated a tiny, flexible silicon plank in a solution containing the spores with the assumption he would be able to measure the humidity-driven force in a customized atomic force microscope. To his surprise, before he could even get it under the microscope, Sahin could see with the naked eye the plank curving and straightening in response to the subtle humidity changes from his breath.

"I realized then that this was extremely powerful," said Sahin.






I don't pretend to understand a great
deal about the inner workings of any of these developments but can't deny that all of them really make the future look so bright - energy wise - that as the song goes " I gotta wear shades."




Okay, from the brightness of the future to the darkness of the cave - the riddle cave that is.



My last one was coffee tables. We inherited one with a transparent top and that's how I discovered that dastardly dust bunnies lurked underneath.  I believe your last one is soup. You are correct about the hitting the spot part, to be sure. One of the best winter concoctions from that kitchen we used to have was a simple hamburger soup that just hit all the right gastronomic notes.

Submitted for your approbation this time around is the following:

Men are made of it

As are angels

If it rides with the wind

you'll be trapped where you sit or stand

 

 

 

By the time you read this we'll hopefully have shifted our latitudinal position from  44.5667 degrees North to 20.9700 degrees North. The Wi-Fi hassles have been apparently conquered so I hope to converse at the regular time from that clime. In the meantime have a good week.

 

 

 

Don

 

 

Figures 1, 2, 3 and 7 sourced from Google Images

 

Fig. 1 - forum.maplewoodonline.com

Fig. 2 - pbagalleries.com

Fig. 3 - asme.org

Fig. 7 - finnhoward.wordp[ress.com