Category: Uncategorized

This is the second version of my video of Bordeaux and its surrounding region from trips in 2019 and 2024. Too often I still think like a still photographer rather than a videographer. Lots of stills from those trips not a lot of video. Thank you Ken Burns for showing us a way to incorporate stills into video.

I’m feeling thankful for the last four years of relative peace. Much of the world is in flames, turmoil and crisis, but here for me, life has been relatively tranquil. Unfortunately this will not be the case for at least the next four years. The divisiveness that has beset this country has only expanded and deepened. This has allowed those who thrive on chaos and fear to come to power. We will pay an heavy price for this foolishness.

Who will benefit as we descend from greatness? Our adversaries of course! China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and others all want us to be diminished. How are they accomplishing this? Divide and conquer, it is one of homo sapiens earliest tactic to overcome a stronger enemy; and, it has been well played by the above named countries.

We red and blue Americans stare at each other, wishing the other side would disappear. In the meantime, China, Russia and Iran are sharpening their knives. While we turn our eyes inward, thinking the enemy is within, those on the outside will take what they want.

So, I’m thankful for what we had. I can only look into the future with a steely resolve not to be afraid but also not to bend to the will of the chaos mongers. Life will be different.

My protest song: “Yes, we have no bananas”. The reason will become obvious in the future.

This was part of a Bloomberg editorial piece: (Traders Odd Lots “Traders bet on financial rumspringa” Nov 8, 2024). “What Joe us Thinking”

…Anyway, a thing that continues to interest me is that there are multiple wings of Trumpism. There is clearly the kind of Wall Street/bank wing. There’s the more techno-libertarian-crypto wing (roughly embodied by Elon Musk). And then there’s the America First, nationalist, populist, tariff wing. And right now, the mood seems to be that this last wing is just not going to be a meaningful part of the economic picture. That it’ll get squeezed out, because in the end, greed will win out. And maybe that’s a good bet. But, you know, maybe.

Interesting, I guess partly to be answered by what is Susie thinking??

https://chatgpt.com/share/1c0bd592-1f3c-4af0-8428-b58beeb73044

I woke up on 7/16-18/2024 thinking about photons, what they are, how they are created and most importantly do they carry intelligence. This I discussed with ChatGPT, see the link above.

I continued to explore photons with ChatGPT. Elsewhere in internet land I saw a comment in either Scientific American or AAAS that ChatGPT and other AI instruments did not produce hallucinations but rather bullshit. Hmm, looking for clickbait. I couldn’t read the comment because of a paywall and I didn’t have my password on hand.

Anyway, at the end of the chat, I asked CGTP to tell me where the term photon came from. Chat said Gilbert Lewis coined the term in 1926 based upon both Max Planck and Albert Einstein works on discrete (particles of) energy. At some point, I’ll check with chat, particles and waves were smooshed together to form today’s understanding of energy.

Thus far, my take away from this is that when I look at a distant star or galaxy, my eyes will absorb the photons from that source, convert it through a chemical biological process to something my brain can understand (or try to) but also destroying the photons during that process. So I’m looking at photons from a galaxy billions of light years away (you know, a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away), these photons have travelled immense distance and time, only to be destroyed by my retina so I can see a bit of twinkling in the night sky. Stop looking, your destroying photons.

Evidently, photons can carry other information besides the wavelength of their waves. This gets into the frequency thing, if you remember AM radio has those low frequencies and FM has higher frequencies, visible light frequency is even higher on up to X-rays and gamma rays. Photons can be polarized, phased, time-binned and their orbital angular momentum measured which can carry additional information. Not that I have a clue on how to access any of these things, but who knows what can be learned from long traveling photons.

One other things of interest, humans are very capable of making photons. We learned to make and contain fire using wood, paper, oil, gun powder, we produced light using incandescent, florescent lights, light emitting diodes, we made gigantic amounts of photons through atomic fission, nuclear fusion and then there are the light sabers. What we are not so good at is gathering and controlling photons. Yes, we can build things like lasers that give us some control, but again we are creating photons. Solar panels, telescopes and the like can pull some photons together this enabling our ability “see” things, but we have no way to attract photons. Black holes can but only because of immense gravitation which humans do not control.

Why bother write about such things? I don’t know but I enjoy thinking about photons at 3 AM; although sleep is probably preferable.

The rhodies at the Coastal Gardens in Boothbay did not disappoint. Unlike last year, they were in full bloom. June 4, 2024.

Despite the heat and humidity I flew today, first time in six months. A friend is a part owner/CFI of a training outfit in central Maine. No pictures this trip, just wanted to fly. It was great! Thanks Eric.

Hey it’s almost summer. Had to get the garden in, then back to imaging in all its various forms.

After many takes, here is one almost good enough to publish.

The first few days.

Why So Many Are Buying What Xi and Putin Are Selling

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-04-06/anti-westernism-is-secret-weapon-for-xi-jinping-and-vladimir-putin