by admin | Jan 21, 2012 |
The Amazon, as we know it, begins at the confluence of the Ucayali and Maranon Rivers in Loretto, Peru and proceeds east north east into Brazil and gathers strength as it is fed by numerous tributaries of the Amazon basin until it exits into an estuary on the Brazilian coast one hundred sixty miles wide. At that point it is flowing three hundred thousand cubic meters per second into the Atlantic. My grasp of flow rates is at low ebb, so to speak, but suffice it to say that the Amazon discharges more fresh water into the world’s oceans than the next seven rivers combined. Just a few other stats are in order if only to titillate your imagination. As you...
by admin | Dec 28, 2011 |
I dunno why exactly, but I’ve been ruminating on the results of the Iowa GOP caucus. I guess it’s in part because I’ve actually attended an Iowa caucus (see I Caucus, Too November, 23, 2007), and in part, because I’m fascinated by the fact that Romney won/lost this caucus after spending only $1,642 per vote cast in his favor. My preliminary conclusion is that there’s a lot of people including a bunch of really conservative Iowans who are pretty well convinced that Anyone But Mitt (ABM) would be a far better candidate. Go figure. Ok, this may be too clever by half, but the parallels between this caucus and the 1972 Democratic caucus that I attended in a...
by admin | Dec 13, 2011 |
Technically it’s no longer bird watching, it’s birding. I don’t know that there’s a big difference, but birders are pretty sensitive types, and I, for one, don’t want to get on their wrong side of one. To answer my own question; I don’t know why I do it. Furthermore, if you would have accused me forty or thirty or even ten years ago of becoming a bird watcher (birder) I would have guffawed and maybe taken a swing at you. BTW, in the UK, birders are called twitchers, but we all know they have a tough time with the King’s english. I am, and I do, watch birds that is. Worse yet, I try, mostly in vain, to take photographs of them. They are harder to get in...
by admin | Oct 21, 2011 |
As you know from Part One of this posting, I was in Singapore for business (read that all expenses paid) and thought to double my pleasure by hooking on to the end of my Singapore sojourn a side trip to Bali. Why Bali? Well, it’s in the neighborhood, so to speak, and I’d never been there, and everyone wants to go to Bali don’t they? It’s an easy and short flight from Singapore to Denpasar (you knew, didn’t you, that Denpasar is the capital of Bali). It’s a semi-chaotic medium sized metro area that only hints of the real pleasures and treasures to be found further afield. I had deliberately chosen Ubud, in the central highlands of Bali, as my home base so I...
by admin | Oct 20, 2011 |
If I could emulate the primal scream that ran Howard Dean out of the Democratic primary last time around, I would. I can’t stand it any more. I know it’s not smart to talk about politics in polite company, but I just can’t stop myself. I watched the GOP primary debates for the same reason that a moth is attracted to light. I did it even though I knew it would cause me great mental anguish. Two thoughts assaulted me as I watched the other night: 1) This is the best we have to offer? In a country of three hundred million, half of which are of the republican persuasion…this is our best? Yikes! 2) Has any of this gaggle ever had an original...
