Puzzling

UNLIKELY CHALLENGE

    Lana, a decades long veteran of jigsaw puzzle work says this ditty from Liberty Puzzles is the toughest she has confronted.

    Alone and with friends she has worked much larger puzzles and with hundreds more pieces. This wood puzzle with interesting shaped cuts may be small, but mighty.

POLI PUZZLING

    Al Hunt is one of the last of the old boy political analysts, descending from a craft where watching and observing were the tools. Unlike most talking heads now, eager to predict or pontificate, Hunt watches and takes measure, often finding foundational facts. Hunt believes what Eric Sevareid said many years ago, you cannot predict politics.

     The other evening as a pollster and other political technicians were doing a horse race assessment and talking about likely outcomes, Hunt reminded them it was impossible to predict what could or might happen or how it could affect a race.

      Too much time and too many words are spent  handicapping outcomes. Coverage is numbers crazy, doing the simulated sports coverage of the campaign, how to win or lose the game. A lot of wordage seems motivated by career posturing or boosting a media profile. Missing in the heat is illumination or thoughtful analysis. Attention spans and historical perspective seem to suffer a deficit disorder.

      Spend a couple minutes here, time traveling to 1977 when television news analysis was indeed thoughtful and provided depth and significance. Sevareid provided this role for CBS News. You'll better know  the quality and intellect of that time and work by seeing this, Sevareid's last comment at the time of his retirement. Walter Cronkite's follow also shows us a perspective that we miss.

GRAZING
cow and lens

    San Simeon Creek Road, northern San Luis Obispo County, California

  

     See you down the trail.

LIKE A GIRL, CATS, BLOOMS AND CONTROVERSY

LIKE A GIRL

   Procter and Gambles' Always brand has generated nearly 18 million views and much more conversation with their "Like a Girl" campaign in social media.

   As the father of two women, strong individualists with extraordinary skill sets and accomplishments and of whom I am proud, I love the message and punch of this video.

    To those who take exception, get over it.  Hard to believe, but there are still people who don't think women should be ordained ministers, or be a CEO, or take command in battle, and etc.  Hate to break it to you, but the earth is not flat either!

ANGRY CATS

    What an attitude that a foggy and cool morning can prompt.  They found a way to our second floor bedroom deck and stirred me from sleep with "Hey bud, our paws are wet out here!"

 DEDICATED TO

ALL GIRLS AND BOYS

ON THE WAY TO ADULTHOOD

A THROWBACK

     Long time friend and mentor, Bruce AKA Catalyst started me rummaging through old files when he started his Throwback Thursday photos. You can link to his blog in the column to the right.  Here's a real oldie--from the 70's.  I'm addressing a few thousand people from the terrace of the Arts Building at Ball State. I was a young journalist covering the environmental beat and was asked to keynote the Earth Day observances.

See you down the trail.

A VISIT WITH TREES-A SPRING BOUQUET and THE OLD BOY

THE LADIES TAKE THE SUN

     A majestic afternoon promenade of shadows

    with a Pacific breeze.

AMAZING THINGS YOU MAY NOT

KNOW ABOUT TREES

There is no question but you will learn from this!

AN OLD BOY
CAUGHT IN ACTION

    Despite being well retired and doing my best to be lazy,

occasionally it is like the bell for an old fire horse and I get 

pressed into some public speaking. Maybe this will convince the tax man some of those deductions are indeed real. 

PRETTY

  Enjoy your spring.

  See you down the trail.

RELAX----THE WEEKENDER

RELAX

     Can you?  Do you?  How frequently?  How do you relax?

Leading questions that were launched by the admonition of a friend in response to a recent post.

      It's no doubt a good thing to do, just relax. But it's difficult for some to do so.

SERENE

the weekender video
THE SUMMER SUN AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT

   Find a little relaxation this weekend.  And wonder how you can help others to do so.

     See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-HOW DO YOU SEE IT?

POINT OF VIEW

     Some of us are bewildered by the almost instant division that appears on practically every thing anymore.  Politics, religion, social structure, meaning and significance are all points of departure.  It seems more so now than ever.

     Henri Bergson, a writer and philosopher in the early 20th century and a Nobel winner for literature wrote of the power of intuition over mechanized intellect.  He also wrote of the continual force of creative and evolutionary energy, calling it "elan vital." I like the concept; never ending expression of new, original, life, birthing, a driving force to creation and understanding.  Mix that with my opening premise above and I'm left to conclude "some people get it and some just don't."

     Some adapt, learn, evolve, grow, expand. Some don't. Some see differences as a space in which opportunity exists, others see boundaries. While we all probably "get set in our ways," as rapidly as science is expanding and cognitive understanding is occurring and computer assistance advances, getting hung up in "old thought" seems to be counter to progress.  But then there are those who find "Progressive" a frightful term. So we come full circle.

      What's it mean?  Maybe we are indeed from different hemispheres of the brain, or different planets!

VIEW POINT ON SUNSET

 From a vineyard hill top, watching the painted sky.

Even the shadows enjoy the moment. 

 There may be better acoustical stages, but none with a better point of view.

THE ULTIMATE EXERCISE IN POINT OF VIEW

THIS IS LOTS OF FUN

     Thanks to my long time friend, artist and musician Jim for forwarding this video.  We are probably from close to the same planet.

      Have a great weekend.

      See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-ROCKIN' THE WORK PLACE

ROCKIN' THE OFFICE

     As a reporter, correspondent and news anchor, my work space was always in a large newsroom setting.  It wasn't until I began work as a ceo that I got a corner office and one even had a view of a lake and green space. Going back into journalism I had a great large office walled by windows-one side viewing the street and the other looking down onto a huge working news operation. 

     Where do you work?  What do you think of this work space?

    The outcropping on a wide bench overlooking the Pacific
is where Salinan Indians spent hours, grinding grasses or 
nuts into a food paste.

   Modern Californians have discovered these grinding mortars or holes, that centuries ago were part of tribal food prep.

  Tucked conveniently into rocks, the native people could sit, work the mortars and take in the view from the office window.

   Hard to top an office with this view?

THE VIDEO

     It would have been fun to sit in the office when the pitch for this spot was done.  Here's a smile or two for your weekend.  Enjoy.

     See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER-PRINCELY WORK & SHADOW PLAY

TIS APPRECIATED

     Well, I didn't expect it.  Thanks to those of you have responded publicly, or by email or like my friend and fellow tennis warrior Janos, in person.

      I noted that my old pal Griff, chided me about the number of flowers captured in these posts.  It was nice to hear that you have taken the time to look at my snaps.  I'm simply dazzled by the beauty and as the old saying goes

"can't help myself!"  So, more pics of floral color still to come. Sorry Griff!

A PRINCE OF A FORECAST

     The Weekender fun video comes from YouTube and is an unusual take on a local weather report.  

      Having hired, coached and managed television "talent" I think the Prince is a natural! Apparently I'm not alone. Here's a quick behind the scenes evaluation of his royalness in tv land.

WHO DO YOU THINK LIVES HERE?

WARM DAY SHADOW PLAY

    Enjoy your Weekend.  See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER

THE POWER OF A MESSAGE

   We passed about 15 horrible minutes today looking at the insipidly terrible trash video that whipped fundamental Muslims into riotous frenzy.  Though it is pathetically stupid and attempts to be offensive to Islam, it is also stupid that intelligent people would riot in response. Rotten is rotten so the best response is to ignore it.  Fundamentalists of any stripe seem to abandon reason though and so the protests continue, giving longer life to the very thing they abhor.  Duh!!

BACK TO THE POWER

   At coffee after tennis this morning David, an admired and respected man, widely traveled and in his 80's, spoke  of the extraordinary power of youtube and other internet videos.  "It's changed everything" he said, "there is no control over what people see or how they'll react."

    In his youth, radio and newspapers were the predominant 

carrier of attitude and information.  Those media, like television, represent structure, organization and a process that touches and shapes the information at least.  The internet of course gives all players equal access to your eyes, ears and brain.  It is without an inherent balance, establishment of significance or quality control. And it is pervasive.

     With that as a full disclosure disclaimer, allow me to put a piece of propaganda before you this weekend.  This is a short trailer about a growing issue and a likely problem across the land.  This is a one sided teaser-but it's about something we all need to think about.  Note my emphasis on think...something absent in all aspects of the first item posted today.

Our thought for the weekend then is just that;

Think about something.  Exercise those gray cells.

See you down the trail.

TEAPOT TEMPESTS AND MORE

PROPORTIONALITY

     The best information to date is the Innocence of Muslims  was a badly made and cheap film that attracted only a handful of viewers at a screening in LA.  It could have died there and never been heard of again. But social media changes all the old rules.

      Clips of the film circulated on YouTube and fanned Muslim anger.  Strains of fundamental Islam take little to work them into a frenzy.  Those who hew to a rigid line of never thinking critically about their own faith, or even thinking in an open minded and rational way are quick to foam and be seized by manic anger.  What apparently is a piece of trash with mysterious origin has now become a pivot point of anger, foment and a genuine foreign policy issue.  For all that is good about a wired world and communication power, an incident like this points to its dark side.

       Ignorance is just that, whether in a film, or in a response to it. Ignorance is rampant in the world, and it wears Muslim, Christian and Jewish garb.  A decentralized, non aggregated, free-for-all communication web can simply add fuel to a fire.  It obviously can also set sparks. When so much ignorance plays in the tinderbox, the world is more dangerous.

       This is the kind of world where the US foreign policy and national security apparatus must operate.  It reminds me of muddy and muck filled rivers populated by crocodiles and snakes.  I was glad to have a veteran at the helm.  Hysterics in this climate can be lethal, but they abound.

ROMNEY'S DANGEROUS MISTAKE

     Now before my Republican, conservative or Romney backing readers have apoplexy, this is not about politics.

Indeed even right leaning or right wing commentators as well as old fashioned mainstream Republicans have criticized the Republican candidate for his opportunistic and political attack on the administration.  He was accused of speaking too early, or looking weak among other non presidential qualities.  The Democrats were more pointed, but since this is not about politics, we leave the comment to his own kind.

     From a center court seat and with an historic perspective, his desperation to score political points reflected a lack of judgement, seasoning, sense of depth and class.  At a time of international crisis, the US speaks with one voice. And Romney's sense of timing was bad, at the very least.  

     When Americans and diplomatic personnel are under attack, politics has no place. When those personnel die, any attempt to score political points is not only repugnant and offensive, it is a stupid miscalculation in a grave moment.  It was a cheap, stupid and tactless thing to do.  Romney and his advisers should be ashamed and are rightly being criticized.

     So there you have it.  Stupid X's 3.  Stupid film, stupid fundamental reaction, stupid politics.  What should have been a tempest in a teapot reveals fatal flaws and fault-lines in a dangerous world.

AND NOW SOMETHING DIFFERENT

A Kitten's First Climb

See you down the trail.

AN IGNORED WARNING

LIFE IN FAST FORWARD

PHOTO FROM JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY

    The "hot line" direct communication link between Moscow and Washington went into service on this day in 1963.  It took 12 hours to decode, translate and respond to Nikita Kruschev's message months earlier during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    By the time the hot line was on Jimmy Carter's desk, the technology had evolved. The dinosaur phone in the picture, once was the picture of modernity.

     49 years after the groundbreaking channel of instant communication we have come to this:

YouTube's Election hub, a child of the internet, which has revolutionized communication. Social media fueled the "Arab-Spring" and now Phillip DeFranco, the lad on the left who began his program in his basement, has more viewers than Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow and even Jon Stewart's daily show.

     DeFranco is one of the multiple offerings on YouTube's election site which puts the director's call of what to air into your hands, truly at your finger tips and on the screen of your choice.

SO IN SUCH A WELL WIRED WORLD
A WORRIED WHY?

     The story of shrinking arctic sea ice, the largest melt since tracking data began, was reported two days ago and barely drew a notice. Arctic sea ice is disappearing more quickly than any time we know of and more rapidly than predicted.

Graph courtesy of Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency and THE WASHINGTON POST

     The increasingly warm summer trends indicate earth's warming and the probability the sea ice will disappear in a future summer.  Warmer Arctic waters can cause Greenland's ice sheet to melt and that can lead to many problems. The shrinking of the Arctic Sea Ice and the diminishing of Greenland's Ice sheet will likely lead to more extreme summers and winters everywhere.

    Man made?  Nature's cycle?  A combination?  Don't you think it's worth exploring?  Still you had to search to see or hear anything.

    About the time the hotline was established a network of radio and television stations, produced a docudrama. Set in the future it was the story of how a news organization covered an environmental and ecological disaster that threatened all human life.  In one chilling passage the anchor does a voice-over of historic clips, listing a litany of warning signs of impending doom, sighting years, and failed international conferences.  Warning after warning went ignored while the people occupied themselves with buying and wanting more.  Until it was too late to hide from the impending end.

     How are we using or listening to our great communication tools? Is mother earth calling our hotline?

DAY FILE

A CORNER OF THE STUDIO

   I was looking around Lana's studio when I became intrigued by the corner near the window.  It's got "personality."

   I'm fascinated by the, texture, lines, divisions and proportionality of the frame below.

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) PURE ENJOYMENT

MILLIONS HAVE SEEN THIS-

HAVE YOU

     It is another amateur "love moment" video that has 

gone viral. More than 11 million viewers so far.

       I continue to marvel how YouTube and web videos weave us into that global village of shared experiences-on the cheap!  

Celebrate imagination!

Celebrate love.

COMING SOON

FLIRTING WITH FOG IN BIG SUR

Have a great weekend.

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) INCREDIBLE PITCH

JUST A WEE DRAM

The Weekender :) is posting an extraordinary video today.

Watch how it is shot and performed, as one long

movement.  Having directed in the field, I assure

you this is a great piece of work by director,

crew and actor.

Enjoy

Rumble, the band featuring our

Mac Guru and friend Rick Auricchio

on bass, rocked the Cambria Lodge last night.

The place was packed, and then made

more full by attendees of a conference

of trial lawyers. 

Yea, you can image the jokes and comments.

Sorry for picture quality.  Shot on a smart phone in looooow light.

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) THAT WAS US ZEITGEIST 2011

A GOOGLE WORLD LOOKS BACK

WE MADE IT

In our television news shops we tried to give viewers

a little something extra during this time of year-

reviews.  These looks back remind us of what

has made the fabric of the year. It's

always fascinating to see it all, put side by side.

So in this cyber age here's an enjoyable

recap, with a beat and mined by Google and 
enabled by YouTube.

Enjoy.

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) COOL

JAZZ MEMORIES

AND

A TALENTED BRO

Last weeks posting of Dave Brubeck's Take Five

and attendant memories, brought one more from the back

of the brain.

I wish I could remember his name, but I am grateful

to an upperclassman  who lived on my freshman

dorm floor. He walked with a brace, the result of

polio, so he had a single room near an exit. With the

extra space he had converted it to a "pad" complete

with shelves, a chair, lamps and a stereo system.

The room was full of jazz albums and on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons, when most of us were doing the kind of things college freshmen did, he had his door open and the jazz was wailing.  There were no complaints, though he always made sure he was not interrupting study.

Not a likely event!

A few of us would gather into his room and he would

pick tunes and give us a little tutorial.  One of his

favorites, and already one of mine was the

piece the THE WEEKENDER :) offers for your

Saturday Groove.

  and one more cool thing

About a year ago a group of fraternity brothers who

have stayed in touch, re-connected with Steve

who was a married senior our freshman year.

Steve Clippinger has had a marvelous

career as an artist.  Part of the joy 

in getting to know Steve is to see

his incredible body of work.

Here's a WEEKENDER :) bonus

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :)

DIFFERENT STREAMS OF TIME

We are constantly reminded of the almost

schizophrenic tone of our age of communication.

We rely on satellites in more ways that most of us know

yet we can not be sure when or where they may fall.

We love the convenience of social media

but must worry about the implications.

Here's a clip from Reader Supported News

What Facebook Really Wants

Nicholas Thompson, The New Yorker 
Nicholas Thompson writes: "The more our online lives take place on Facebook, the more we depend on the choices of the people who run the company - what they think about privacy, how they think we should be able to organize our friends, what they tell advertisers (and governments) about what we do and what we buy. We'll rely on whom they choose as partners to give us news and music. Real issues are at stake, in other words - not just the size of photos and whether you can poke."
READ MORE

And there is another good weekend read here

in this link to a thoughtful and provocative article by Nat Hentoff.  What freedoms have we lost or are

in danger of loosing when our desire for safety,

security and technology combine?

BUT THEN-

there is the technological reach into the past

that was not imaginable in our youth

when things were more simple.

Or were they?

Thanks to Moto, my "mad archivist" for 

finding this ditty.

Enjoy

See you down the trail.