2024
As we near the election, I’m sleeping about as well as I did in the early months of the pandemic. 😱
Given how much JD Vance lies, I don’t see why we should believe any of his denials about having a weird couch fetish. 😉
More fall colors


Groovy, Far Out Coffee
Here is a two-minute psychedelic promo for "Good Strong Coffee" (1968) from the BFI National Archive: https://youtu.be/ozxZCENVaVE.

Russia Wants to Muzzle Childless Cat Ladies
The Russian parliament is discussing a law to ban so-called “propaganda of childlessness” with fines up to $4,300 for individuals. Will that help to solve the country’s demographic crisis?
“What’s behind Russia’s plan to ban ‘child-free’ ideology?,” DW, Sept. 28, 2024.
It’s almost as if they were pandering to Vance – or drinking from the same batch of Kool-Aid.
There is a lot of red pine in this area. The tree bark is fairly distinctive. (4/4)

Heading back down, so no more sun on the ground. (3/4)

From the same walk. More sun is visible because I gained elevation (2/4)

Seen on my walk late this afternoon. (1/4)

Boulder Loop Trail
Here is one of countless granite boulders that I saw in the woods while on the Boulder Loop Trail two days ago. I’ve posted twelve snapshots of this granite to Pixelfed.
Has the past decade of information war, alternative facts, and bothsidesing journalism been about conditioning us to believe we need crappy output from Silicon Valley’s LLMs?
Ten seconds of sounds at dusk last week via an iPhone SE.
Probably need a microphone, but I thought I’d give it a go.
Russia lets African migrant laborers enter on tourist visas. From there, they can look for work, but sign a contract that lands them on the front lines in Donbas. The Kyiv Independent has excerpted interviews with two African POWs held by Ukraine. https://youtu.be/PM9DnRxxWC0 (12 min)
A German hashtag phenomenon I ran across on Mastodon and Bluesky recently is #FotoVorschlag (photo suggestion). The idea is to post one’s own photo based on the day’s keyword from @[email protected] or @fotovorschlag.bsky.social. Today’s was “Bach,” which is not only the name of a composer but also German for “brook” or “stream.” I took the first photo here near Diana’s Baths in North Conway and Bartlett, NH, on May 22, 2023. It shows a trail that had been turned into a stream by the rains, which cleared the earth, leaves, and pine needles from the granite.
I took the second photo this afternoon near Pudding Pond in North Conway. The marshy areas near this spot are apparently beaver stomping grounds, as you can see from all the gnawing they did on this tree.The contrast between VP Harris’s performance in this NABJ interview and the other guy’s is stark. The first part, on economic issues, is familiar. Then the tough questions begin, and the VP has a lot to say, getting more eloquent when pressed. https://www.youtube.com/live/I3ZV5Ea3xro
Autocracy is a political system, a way of structuring society, a means of organizing power. It is not a genetic trait. Particular cultures, languages, or religions do not necessarily produce it. No nation is condemned forever to autocracy, just as no nation is guaranteed democracy.
Anne Applebaum, Autocracy, Inc. (Doubleday, 2024), chap. 1.
Just shipped a package from the post office. Clerk: Any hazardous materials? Me: Well, books. ⚠️📚