Well, gee. It’s been almost a month since my return from Ecuador. No wonder I’m restless. Fortunately, we have our daughter to visit in France. She’s there for her junior year at University. I told her when she left, “Don’t plan on coming home. We’ll come to you.” And a promise (threat?) is a promise.
We’ll have five days with her in Paris and five more in Valencia. Can’t wait. Back shortly after the New Year.
As always, I’ve been collecting some groovy stuff for you in the meantime, starting with this cool talk on the Origins of Life and this Gorilla encounter. Talk about a memorable trip for that guy!
Looking to have some holiday fun? Got some sheep, sheep dogs and Christmas lights? Here’s how.
Train graveyard, Bolivia. Been here.
Here’s a cool review of graveyards for planes, tanks, ships, submarines, trains, anchors, taxis and even phone booths. I’ve actually been this past summer to the train graveyard in Bolivia. It lies on the edge of Salar de Uyuni, the great salt flats.
April 1937. “Old man on the street in Shawneetown, Illinois.”
Medium-format nitrate negative by Russell Lee.
One of a great series of North American Indian photos by Edward Curtis
I know people who could learn a bit of etiquette from these Dogs Dining. Yeah? You too?
Copenhagen Flash Mob. Cool music.
Ever since the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s, oil and oil supplies have cast an outsized shadow over our economic and politic thinking. I’ve long been suspect of this. While clearly western economies still need oil, oil producers need to sell it every bit as much, maybe more. If you are interested in a counterpoint to all the hand-wringing prose that is mostly written on this subject, this article is a breath of fresh air:
It written by John Quiggin a professor of economics at the University of Queensland, Australia and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland. He is also the author of Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us.
I’ve never been one for gardening and my rare attempts ended in disaster. Still, if you are, this post by 101C will bring a smile to your face. It is so well written, it did even to mine.
My pal Shilpan did a fine post on the Gone Fishin’ Portfolio and then kindly invited me to do something of a mini-post of my own in his comments section.
I’m always at a bit of a loss when it comes to dispensing advice on how to live below your means. For me it has always been like breathing. You just do it. Still, I realize it is an issue many wrestle with and, after all, you can hardly follow my advice on what to do with your excess capital until you can arrange your life in such a fashion as to have excess capital. So, courtesy of Young, Cheap, Living here are 10 Tips for living on Less Than 25k per Year.
Maybe things were better in the good old days….
Ever wondered about the scale of the universe? Say, how does a T-Rex compare to a hydrogen atom? Or how does Rhode Island compare to Neutron Star? (Hint: RI is bigger. I didn’t know that. Did you know that??) Seriously entertaining. Cool music, too:
This Sliding Scale takes you from Quantum Foam to the entire Observable Universe
Before you head out to wander about the other planets in our own Solar System, you might take a moment to brush up on the inhabitants you’ll find when you get there:
Survey of Life Forms from the other planets and moons in our solar system.
Some pretty weird stuff here too on our own little planet:
Sergey Gusev is a painter working in St. Petersburg, Russia. He does masterful portraits like this one:
He also does landscapes and still life and I used two to illustrate my post: stocks-part-xiii-withdrawal-rates-how-much-can-i-spend-anyway. But what’s really neat is this video he just put up. In it we get to watch over his shoulder as a painting comes together.
Most people who know me were surprised when I launched this blog. They know me as a very private person. To this day still I am not on any of the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in and the like. Not saying they’re bad, just saying I’ve never been comfortable with the loss of privacy. And yes, I realize with this blog that game is already over. Still, watching this mind reader at work didn’t help.
There’s this guy named Glenn who plays the Sax and wanders around the country living in his van. He’s been blogging about it these past few years and, like anyone who chooses their own path, he’s gotten his share of flack from those Mr. Money Mustache so compellingly calls “Complainypants.” Now Glenn has come across someone even he can look down upon:
A guy living in a canoe in Boston Harbor.
Glenn’s satiric complainypants take on this guy had me at “Just look at that picture again – the imperious grasp on the oar, that holier-than-thou orange life preserver…”
A new friend, JD Roth, recently reminded me of what is very likely the most influential book, on me anyway, I’ve ever read:
To new friends and old. To those who have found freedom and those still in pursuit. Have a wonderful holiday and here’s to a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous New Year!
