Have you ever wondered what would happen if the entire flow of Niagara Falls was forced through a straw? Well, it seems that it would make several agencies upset – and it would destroy the Earth in a massive fusion reaction. How close to a supernova would you have to stand to get a lethal dose of neutrinos? What is the most expensive way to fill a shoebox? Cartoonist Randall Munroe answers life’s deepest questions using math and science and publishes almost-daily comic strips of everyday social conundrums. It’s hilarious.
Tip: Hovering your pointer over the illustrations gives more information.
0 Comments
In June of 2014, I drove to New Hampshire to visit old friends and do some camping. On June 27th I climbed Mount Chocorua and made a fantastic discovery: I am incredibly out of shape! My calves hurt for days after. I was slow and passed by virtually everybody, but I wasn’t the slowest on the mountain. I did pass a slug going the same way. There was a lot to see on the way up, such as lichen-encrusted rocks and trees. The purple areas on this rotting log are smooth and hard, while all around it is chipping away. It makes quite a design, doesn’t it? This tree seems to have been temporarily confused about which way was up: The mountain is rather steep most of the way up – much worse than Mount Monadnock – especially at the top where smooth rock curves down to become immense cliffs on two sides. Adding to the psychological intimidation, even after walking forever to reach the tree line, one can look to the left and see the top and just how far it is. The trail never seems to end. Being mostly bare rock on top, the trail is easy to lose and I ended up climbing straight up a wall for the last fifteen feet. The photographs do not at all do the view justice. In my peripheral vision, I could see that the nearest trees I could see were still very distant, giving the feeling that the view wrapped around underneath my feet and I was floating in the sky. It was a bit like standing in an OMNI theater. The White Mountains are beautiful in the summer. Please comment.
I visited the Emerson Point Preserve in Palmetto, Florida in April 2014, a peninsula on the border of the Manatee River and Tampa Bay. On the map it is on an island, but this is only because of a small canal. The preserve rules prohibit collecting, walking off-trail, and alcohol. Despite this, it was still pretty fun. I saw a lot of warped trees such as these: I also found this tree with the worst sunburn I have ever seen: I saw tiny, hard seeds/berries that greatly resembled ladybugs (red with a black spot). There were many cacti and century plants sticking out into the trail. I saw large, purple flowers with pink stripes and large, pink flowers with pink stripes. They were nearly identical. On these flowers was a black butterfly with blue spots and a bluish sheen (likely a mangrove skipper). It crawled so deep into one of the flowers that I was able to briefly trap it inside by gently pinching the flower base shut. I also saw a zebra long-wing butterfly, a duck, a collar snake, a red-thorned spider (possibly Gasteracantha cancriformis), and these mangrove crabs: Please Comment
This is a poem I wrote in 2003. I imagine all of my poetry set to music. While I am normally no good at coming up with tunes of my own, this is one of the rare times I came up with a tune I don’t recognize from elsewhere. It has a sort of Paul McCartney sound to it. Tell me what you think. Hello, I'll introduce myself
I'm the king of the world Others sleep in my castles I usually sleep outdoors My slaves bring me everything And they bring it for free And when I'm finished singing Please hand some bread to me I carry no possessions 'cause I own everything you see I'm the king of the world And the world belongs to me Some say I'm crazy When I say the world is mine Others say I'm lazy Others say I'm fine Some say I'm funny But I know the truth I'm the greatest there is And I'm the king of the world I run it all I pull all the strings I get no complaints Except from some fools Why don't I stop the wars and strife If I'm as powerful as I say Because those aren't worth dealing with Unless of course they come my way There are few others Who accept my authority But that's perfectly okay The only word that matters is one from me I'm the greatest there is And I'm the king of the world I own the largest rock collection It's right under your feet Though some of my slaves may hide some I'll get them back again I keep the largest one Down under somewhere I'm the greatest there is And I'm the king of the world I'm the king of the world If only for a while I'm the king of the world Now's alright to bow I'm the king of the world And you know I'm the king of style I'm the greatest there is And I'm the king of the world Here we see the two world superpowers of the day (me and my sister) pretending to be civil for the cameras before resuming our war.
I am a writer and an artist. Creativity drives me. It is what makes life worth living and it comes to me as naturally as does breathing. I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. I want to express myself not only because I’m in love with myself, but so that I can entertain others and raise their spirits as well. Creating art is an act of love. I also celebrate the creativity of others. I love art, music, comedy, and fiction. Not everything is to my tastes, but I always appreciate it when someone puts in an effort to make something unique. The world is rich with fascinatingly complex and beautiful sights, sounds, and tastes and I want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy them. Producing art is fundamentally human and every human is at least somewhat creative. Enjoying and consuming art requires a creative mind to appreciate it. I am able to celebrate art I did not create by bringing my own interpretation to it. This requires creativity. Learning, understanding, and exploring are also fundamentally human. To be trapped in one place crushes the human spirit. I love to broaden my mind, so it sickens and saddens me when some people reject knowledge out of fear, remaining in ignorance and squalor. They continue to reject my help, but my love of truth and knowledge will not allow me to stop reaching out.
My love for creativity also extends to scientific speculation and theories. I don’t have to believe that everything I read is true to enjoy reading about it. I once got a book out of the library called The Dinosaur Heresies. It suggested, among other things, that the dinosaurs were warm-blooded and presented evidence to support the idea. This has since become mainstream thinking. I got another book out of the library called The Big Bang Never Happened. It suggested that we live in an infinitely old, hyperbolic spacetime and that quasars are magnetic plasma foci rather than black hole accretion disks. I have always been more interested in learning the basics of every school of thought on a subject than in learning any one worldview in great detail. I am attracted to heresies. I collect them. I find them irresistible – not because I want to rebel against “authority” – but simply because I love ideas. My love of ideas also includes descriptions of alternate cultures and new ways to order our institutions. I don’t have to agree that all propositions are good ideas to want to learn about them. Learning is an end in itself. I derive pleasure from mulling over the possibilities of different forms of government. Reading only that which I already agree with is boring. I crave new ideas that I have never heard before. The fact that I might not agree with an author is all the more reason to read his/her work. It intrigues me to think there might be some merit to the arguments. I like to be surprised. Rarely does anyone change my mind, but I also read for reconnaissance purposes. Reading the work of my political/intellectual opponents informs me of the rhetorical devices they use so I better know how to formulate my own arguments to defeat them. How can I win anyone over to my side if I remain uninformed? I want to hear from those I disagree with. I want Nazis, communists, and scientologists to be able to have their say. It helps me to refine my thinking and better understand what I don’t believe and why I don’t believe it. In fact, the vast majority of the things I have come to believe I arrived at by first hearing someone actually attempt to make a case for the opposite. Things are often known by their contrary. I want people to speak up. This is why it hurts so much when I hear people being shouted down and threatened with violence merely for making a few points. It is not only scary for those speaking and disappointing for those of us that want to hear them, but I also find it very very sad. The protestors hurt themselves most of all. They miss out. Ironically, it is colleges where the most extreme forms of speech suppression take place. Colleges are at least nominally institutions of knowledge and learning, but I am finding this description harder to believe all the time. Even more ironically, it is the students who prevent those they don’t like from speaking. Why do they (or their parents) spend so much on education if they refuse to learn? It doesn’t make sense. There is so much agitation out there now that colleges are insisting that visiting speakers (or those that invite them) pay for the extra security. Thus, the rich get their points across while the poor remain unheard. Why can’t the college pay for security? What do they do with all that tuition money? Many colleges are subsidized by state governments. Why can’t the state pay for it? Since college students will be the next generation of leaders that will run our institutions when we retire, it hurts all of us when they remain uneducated. Church is another place where free thought is often discouraged. One would think that God would want us to learn. Why else did he give us brains? Strangely, churches actually encourage learning if it is to draw you away from anti-church ideas, but once they have you inside you will often be told that any doubts are a symptom of sin that will expel you from God’s favor. Hypocrites! There are many reasons to support freedom of speech. When speech is suppressed, those with unpopular views do not simply go away. Instead they communicate with each other in secret and become increasingly desperate to be heard. Some resort to terrorism when they have no other option. When questioning established doctrine is prohibited, it causes even reasonable people to wonder what the authorities have to hide and whether they are covering something up. Conspiracy theories thrive on secrecy. Besides, the only way to know whether someone is worth listening to is to first listen to them. There is no way to know what they will say until they say it. If you don’t know what they’re going to say, you can’t know that it will be false. If they fail to convince you, no harm is done – and if they do convince you, doesn’t that mean you learned something? Isn’t that good? Don’t you want the best information you can get? What are you so afraid of? Why stay stupid? On the other hand, if they are only repeating what they have already said, no further harm can come of it. What they have said is already part of the public domain and cannot be unheard. They are hurting no one. Let them continue. When those in power are uneducated, we all suffer. In a democracy, this means the voters and this is why widespread ignorance is so dangerous. Suppressing speech kills democracy. When a tyrant controls what you hear, you may not even know you live in a tyranny. Knowledge is power and ignorance is enslavement. Of all people, it is students, artists, writers, and performers that should be most wary of enslavement because it cuts to the very soul of what learning and art are all about – freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom itself. Why then, do so many of them try to shut people up? Any artist who does not support allowing those of unpopular views to speak is no artist at all and lacks the very thing that makes us human – the creative drive. They are something less than animals. It makes me wonder: Since they aren’t human, is it morally permissible to hunt them for food? Cartoonist Josh Hughes creates weekly one-panel stories of the fantasy adventures of robot brothers One and Two at BotBros.com. They meet ogres, witches, and centaurs. They are cute, comical, uplifting, scary, and thought-provoking – but mostly comical. I love them.
I visited Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa, Florida in October 2013. It isn’t that big, but there is a lot packed into it. First, I took the boardwalks through the swamp. I was surprised how few biting insects and how few birds (biting or not) there were. I did see a few wading birds, picking through the submerged vegetation for snacks. There were also quite a few surface skimming insects. The cypress trees I found contorted (or eroded) into some of the craziest shapes ever, but I couldn’t decide which to take pictures of. You’ll have to take my word for it. Anyways, I did not see any lettuce and the “lake” itself is really more of a forest. False advertising? I am a bit disappointed. I saw zero snakes, zero fish, and zero gators. However, I did see about seven turtles. Following the boardwalks to more open water near the river, I passed by the observation tower. It was closed. I saw what I think was an otter repeatedly stick its head out of the water and swim right underneath where I was standing. I was able to follow it by the subtle disturbance in the surface vegetation. I tried to take a picture, but it wouldn’t hold still.
After this, I followed the paved and unpaved trails that circle the dry parts of the park. I passed a grassy field, a playground, a swing set (separate from playground), a sandbox, picnic shelters, restrooms, and very strange-looking structures described on the map as “exercise stations.” The area is dominated by palmettos and beauty berry. I also saw squirrels, various flowers, mushrooms, and a green dragonfly. It’s a nice place. Please comment. This is a poem I wrote in 2003. I always imagine my poems set to music, but I am not good at coming up with new tunes. I imagine this one as a sort of rap while the chorus is similar to the chorus of Dream On by Aerosmith. Love it? Hate it? Let me know what you think. Love isn't all
Peaches and cream It has a dark side A dark side, it seems Watch out for it Or you'll lose your mind No matter what the man says Love isn't kind I drank love's wine And found half a worm What I thought was pleasure Was really a germ Just like a peach The heart has a pit Beware of its trap You'll fall in it Into the pit You will slide If you only knew the power Of the dark side Dark side of love Dark side of love I can't get above The dark side of love Take me to the other side I can't go on Since we split up It's been so long Just like the dark It can't be seen It's violently vicious It's definitely mean You don't notice Until the light goes out It'll make you cry It'll make you shout Like a black hole It will pull you in That man was lucky The one made of tin Love isn't kind This is a fact It may look good But it's just an act Now I know the eagle Was hunting the dove Ruining your life is easy All you need is love Dark side of love Dark side of love I can't get above The dark side of love Take me to the other side I can't go on Since we split up It's been so long Love has a dark side A dark side, it seems It's like the hot fudge On vanilla ice cream The pain I felt When our seperation spread Helped me to know I meant what I said When the shadows are sharp I know why It means that The sun's in the sky That's what I've learned It took me some time To make sweet pie Takes sour key lime So when things go bad When you've had enough You know about the power The power of love Dark side of love Dark side of love I can't get above The dark side of love Take me to the other side I can't go on Since we split up It's been so long Something I’ve learned in my travels and reading is that while common sense can be helpful, sometimes it has been shown wrong by modern science.
Objects fall down. The Earth is spherical and objects do not fall down. Rather, they fall towards the Earth even when they are on its underside. If we can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. At least ninety percent of the matter making up galaxies is invisible, known only from its gravitational effects. Solid matter is full. Solid matter is mostly empty space. Atoms are made of incredibly tiny nuclei surrounded by vast clouds of electrons with nothing in between. Empty space is empty. Empty space is full of matter. Virtual particles pop in and out of existence in accordance with quantum uncertainty principles. This is how forces are mediated and quantum tunneling is made possible. My time is your time. Time runs at different rates for different objects. Objects travelling near the speed of light barely experience time at all. Everything has a defined position. Waves are particles. Particles are waves. An individual electron can pass through two slits at once and interfere with itself in order to hit a detection screen where a particle moving in a straight line could not reach. Eating fat makes you fat. Eating fat does not make you fat. Eating more calories than you use makes you fat, whether those calories are from fat, oil, protein, sugar, starch, or alcohol. The human body is perfectly capable of taking unused energy in any form and storing it as fat molecules. A one-degree increase in temperature over the course of a century can’t hurt us. Just because the ecosystem can survive swings of thirty degrees or more from day to night or from summer to winter, it does not mean that a rise of one degree in the global average is not a problem. Increased temperature over many years has a cumulative effect and it is not so much the temperature that is the problem so much as the total amount of heat energy in the system. This energy can then turn into other forms, causing higher wind speeds, moving a larger volume of moisture around to cause increased rainfall, or melting the icecaps and causing the oceans to rise. The more energy that goes into breaking the hydrogen bonds in the ice and turning it into a liquid, the less that can go into raising the temperature of the air. Just because something makes sense, doesn’t mean it’s true. Just because something doesn’t make sense, doesn’t mean it’s false. Common sense is not always right. Please comment. LearnToBlog.com has great advice for bloggers on how to get readers, create content, get responses, and monetize. It has numerous guest bloggers tell about their blogs. If you have a blog or are thinking of starting one, read through their articles.
The Mount Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, New Hampshire is great. I visited in September of 2012. It covers all the major Amerindian groups in North America, such as the Eskimos, the Navajo, and the local Abenaki. I loved the art. I found the simple tools and technologies interesting, such as canoes and the domestication of animals. There is a teepee outside and a garden with information of what plants were used as what medicines, which they learned about through trial and error.
What I really wanted to know was why dream catchers were the shape that they were and why so many of the exhibits spoke of a “circle of life.” The ancients would not have known of the water cycle or the carbon cycle. What exactly did it refer to? The employees thought that dream catchers might be a modern invention based on no particular ancient custom and they claimed that “circle of life” only referred to the fact that all life is connected. Connected in what way? By gravity? Why can’t it be connected in a triangle or a pentagram instead of a circle? They did not know. Nobody ever knows the answers to my questions. Please comment. This is an account of my trip through Vermont in 2011.
Molly Stark State Park – August 17 I drove to Molly Stark State Park and slept next to an apple tree. It smelled beautiful. I was careful to place my tent just out of range of the falling apples, but I had trouble driving the tent stakes through the pebble-filled soil. That night, I practiced roasting perfect marshmallows. Driving – August 18 I drove north to Lake Willoughby and drove around the area figuring out what trails there were to take. Later, I took route 105 east by numerous farms, trees, and mountains. It was a very scenic drive. There are entire sections of road that are nothing but pine and ferns. Finally, I found the dirt road off of 102 that leads to Maidstone State Park. After passing by nothing but trees for three miles or more, I suddenly found a row of houses around the edge of a lake. At the very end of the road is the park. Highlights: I saw a fox cross 105 in front of me. Mount Hor – August 19 Off of route 5A is a dirt road that goes nearly halfway up Mount Hor. I took the trail the rest of the way up. It was steep. I got very sweaty. Although the top is covered with vegetation, there are three cliff lookouts near the top with some limited visibility. Each is only big enough for two or three people. On my way from the second to the third lookout, I heard thunder. Soon after, I heard an approaching roar which turned out to be sheets of rain hitting the treetops. Seconds later, the storm was right over me. Less than two minutes later, the storm passed on. I continued to hear distant thunder as I reached the third lookout. Then I descended. Highlights: I saw a snake and more tiny toads than I could ever count. Mount Psigah – August 19 Directly across the road from the Mount Hor access road is the trail to climb Mount Psigah. Psigah and Hor flank the southern end of Lake Willoughby, with Psigah on the east. On the west (lake side) of Mount Psigah is mostly bare vertical rock, but from the south is a trail that leads to the top. It is very steep and I was exhausted by the time I reached an exposed area near the top. I also checked out two of the western lookouts. These are openings in the woods right at the edge of the cliff that offer a much better view than at Mount Hor, though they are just as small. They were awesome. Rather than keep looking for the others, I headed back down to eat and rest. At the very beginning of the trail is a pond with dead trunks sticking out of it. The way the sunlight caught them struck me as very nice. Unfortunately, I would not have my first camera until 2013. There is a lot of coniferous life on Mount Psigah, and it smells beautiful. There was also a lot of fungous, of many colorful varieties. In several places I swear I could smell rich, butter-fried, portabella mushrooms, but could not see them. It was very strong. Near the top there were birds whose wings made loud whirring noises when they took off. There was also a giant dragonfly whose wings were louder than I was used to. Highlights: I saw a large nest in a short tree near the top. I saw a dead insect I think must have been either a female dobsonfly or a horntail fly. Maidstone State Park – August 19 I drove back to Maidstone State Park by way of 105. As the sun set behind me, a strange mist began to rise from the forest around me. By the time I got to 102, I didn’t see it anymore. Arriving just after sunset, I sat by the lake and ate ravioli. That’s when I saw a loon surface just thirty feet from me. A few seconds later it was gone. I waited a long time for it to surface, but it never did – at least not where I could see it. That is the only time I have ever seen a loon. The park was surprisingly low on insects and I slept outdoors in one of their lean-tos. After climbing two mountains, sleep came easy. The next morning, I visited the beach there to take a quick swim. As I sat drying my feet on the rocks, I saw a large frog in the water. We stared at each other for minutes. Finally, I poked a stick toward him. He jumped up and bit the end of it! We played this game three more times. I’m not sure what his motives were. Later, I took the trail that ran along the shore from one beach to the second beach. Highlights: I saw many minnows and what must have been an ichneumon fly – something I have read about but never seen. Fairbanks Museum – August 20 I visited the Fairbanks Museum in Saint Johnsbury. Finding the street it was on was no problem, but finding which direction to go once on that street was. The museum itself has no sign, the front of it is obscured by trees, the angle of it one sees from the road is different than the angle in the brochure, and many of the buildings around there have the same style. Finally, I got inside. All the exhibits are in one large room and most of them are taxidermy. They were having a special on birds that week and so I saw hundreds of birds grouped by continent. There was also a moose, bears, monkeys, a tiger, a wolverine, a muskrat, and several other mammals. There was also a special section just for hummingbirds. There must have been a hundred hummingbird species represented. Really cool was the globe tool, a six-foot spherical screen that would show different rotating maps of Earth. Different choices included tectonic plates, ocean floor, and Earth after rising sea levels. There were also maps of The Moon, Mars, and other planets. The layout at the museum was sometimes irksome. One exhibit purportedly explained how and why early ideas of what dinosaurs were like differed from those today, but instead of showing a side by side comparison for each one, the arrangement of the models was scattered and incomplete. Often, it was difficult to tell where one exhibit ended and another began. I also noticed the usual “green” propaganda. A placard stated that species are disappearing today at a rate even faster than they did during the end of the age of dinosaurs, and that today’s rate of extinction is unprecedented. There is no way they could know this. The data is far too incomplete. The fossil record is so sparse that they can’t even find the “missing links”, how could they know for sure exactly when a species went extinct? Does anyone remember the coelacanth, the fish that everyone thought went extinct millions of years ago only to be found still living? Nobody is in agreement how many species are on the Earth in the first place, let alone how many are dying. We are still counting new ones and estimates of the total vary widely. Also, breeds and subspecies are reclassified as full, independent species all the time. I also happen to know that we simply lack the infrastructure to track population levels of every species there is, especially when some were only just discovered and may not ever be seen again. The world is a big place, and collection is based somewhat on luck. Incidentally, the extinction of the dinosaurs was not the greatest in history (the Permian-Triassic event was much greater), so it is a cherry-picked comparison in any case. Museums must hate me. True FriendshipOne thing I’ve observed in life is what makes for satisfying companionship. To connect with others is a fundamental emotional need very rarely met and impossible to do over the internet. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not trying to take anyone’s internet relationships away. For some people, this is all they have and it is much better than nothing. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having internet friends; it is only that they can never fully make up for a lack of friendship in the real world. These are my observations: Text is not enough. To really connect with someone I have to see them in three dimensions, in motion, responding in real time to my actions. I savor every involuntary scrunching of the eyebrows right at the punchline of my jokes. Through this I gain a better understanding of their thought processes than mere words could ever convey. Of course, this could be done through a video call, but meeting someone in person is better. Meeting someone in person demonstrates you care enough about them to go out of your way. It is not the time to spend texting everyone else who isn’t there. If those other people need your attention, they should have come. It is unfair to ignore the one who went out of her way for you. Divided attention is not only distracting to the one engaged in the activity, but also to those attempting to communicate to him. Meeting someone in person builds trust. They at least know that you really do live in the area and are not lying about your looks. They also know that their secrets are only being heard by one person rather than remaining in text form in someone’s computer forever. True friendship requires your time. When I was in junior high school, I spent three hours a day six days a week with the same guy. It was simply a given that I would run down the hill to his house after school and play. We never had to wonder whether we would be bored or lonely that day. I always assumed that when we grew up we would live in the same house or own/work for the same business. My ideal life was for us to live together in a spaceship and explore the galaxy, but I don’t think that will happen. As adults, our lives are full of necessary chores and employment taking up most of our time, but if you aren’t spending at least six hours a week with someone it calls into question whether you are really friends. An objection I have heard raised to this point is that there might be months or years that you do not see someone, but with good friends you are always able to pick up where you left off. This is true, but it only applies to those you are already good friends with. If you hardly ever see someone, it is impossible to become friends in the first place. True friendship requires having the same basic outlook on life. You must have the same worldview. This does not mean agreeing on everything. For example, two people can disagree on global warming and each bring evidence to support their side and remain friends. However, if one of them doesn’t even believe in evidence, makes no effort to defend her opinion, and relies solely on intuition, every conversation they ever have on any subject will be incredibly awkward. True friendship requires that you not be enemies. It sounds obvious, but people often don’t seem to get it. Stealing from or physically injuring me is only one step away from ordering others to do it, which is in turn only one step away from electing candidates that will order others to do it. Those who spew hatred and preach prosecution of those that live differently from them always make me uncomfortable – even if they don’t vote. I understand that people often vote for one candidate only to defeat another even worse one, and I understand that others either aren’t as well informed as I or else I am not as well informed as them, so I am not quick to reject someone just because they vote differently. My problem is with people who have a fundamentally different notion of what constitutes self-defense. If they think it right to steal from me by using violence and I think it right to prevent such theft by using violence, I feel like I have to constantly watch my back around them. I can never relax. There have been people I almost immediately “click” with and many more that I do not. I need someone who can laugh and not take everything so seriously. I need someone who I can synchronize a work flow with so that he is not always in my way and I in his. I need someone that will not stupidly misunderstand everything I say, including my attempts to correct the misunderstanding. I need someone who will automatically understand the intent behind my words, understanding not only the content but why it is that I bothered to say anything. I need someone who will know what I’m getting at without me having to spell it out. I need someone that will look in the direction I’m pointing instead of in the opposite direction (yes, this has happened). I need someone I can share my secrets and dreams with. I need someone who wants to travel, explore, and learn with me. Maybe I’m asking for too much, but without these things I know from experience that I will be deeply lonely. I have met people like this before, so I know they exist, but it has been years since they were a part of my life. Some of them became really busy in work, or found other friends, or got into drugs. Some of them started families that tied them down. Some of them changed and became enemies. Some won’t talk to me. Others I have lost contact with and have no idea if they are even still alive. I’m still waiting to meet the next true friend. While everyone has different tastes and emotional needs, and it is not my place to tell others what they should want, there are certain things that I know I will never be satisfied without and this is what I define as true friendship. True RomanceWhile it has been a long time since I’ve had a friend, I’ve never come anywhere near finding romance. The first and most important attribute I look for in a romantic partner is that we either are or can be true friends. Everything that I look for in a friend I also look for in a romantic partner. If I can’t be friends with you, there is no possible way I can be romantic. You are better off with someone else.
Romance isn’t only about what I get out of it, but about what I can give. There is not much that brings me greater joy than to help another person and see someone I love prosper. I am willing to make sacrifices. I get a lot out of giving, but if I can’t even give, I get nothing. If I feel that I have nothing to offer that you don’t already have or if I get the feeling that you only put up with me so you won’t be seen alone in public, I will lose whatever interest I might have initially had. We must be complimentary in some way, making each other complete. This complimentarity is especially poignant when it comes to creating life and all romance is by its very nature inherently heterosexual. There is little that compares to teaching another person all about the world that they are new to. To share and raise children with someone as a team is incredibly romantic. I understand the desire to wait, but sexual partners not ever open to having kids (biological or adopted) are not engaging in true romance. Romance requires emotional intimacy and physical intimacy, including sexual intimacy. Humans need intimacy. It is a fundamental emotional need. This requires physical contact. Pheromones do not travel through phone lines. However, intimacy cannot be rushed, or it will create discomfort and prevent true intimacy from ever occurring. One must ease into it gradually. While everyone has different tastes and emotional needs, and it is not my place to tell others what they should want, there are certain things that I know I will never be satisfied without and this is what I define as true romance. Of course, anything is better than nothing and I never turn anyone away. I meet people where they are in life and appreciate whatever good I can find in them without dwelling on the bad. I am always giving people more chances; I just wish they would do the same for me. Please comment. Amanda writes about her myriad visits to interesting places around the world and gives travel advice on her blog, Dangerous-Business. It is what I hope this blog might be in some distant future. It is my inspiration. Check it out.
You don’t have to go far from home for long to find interesting things. I enjoy the small places in between. This is an account of my trip through Vermont in 2009, which was the first time I drove more than two hours away from my home by myself (I lived in New Hampshire at the time). If you have an eye for detail, there is always plenty to see. Harriman Reservoir - June 8
After parking and walking to the opposite side of the Harriman dam, I discovered a snowmobile path that ran for a very long ways. I decided to make a hike out of it. I eventually gave up walking and turned around after what must have been more than three miles. This entire time, I did not see a single human on the path. Nor did I ever see anyone on the opposite shore, nor a single boat in the water. It was very peaceful. The water was unsuitable for wading. It was full of leaves, muck, and branches. Trees grew right up to the water. There was no proper beach anywhere. Besides, the water was colder than I expected for June. Highlights: There were large, yellow butterflies everywhere. In one location, there was a dogpile of them on the ground. I gave chase but they got away. They all seemed to have great difficulty getting off the ground. Eventually, all but one did, and it was still there when I returned that way to my car. Molly Stark State Park – June 8 Turning east on route 9, I headed for Molly Stark State Park. A trail from the park leads to the top of Mount Olga, which is really more of a big hill. It is quite steep, but the length of the trail was slightly disappointing. Also, the top is covered with trees, blocking any view. There is a fire tower at the top, but the plastic windowpanes are cracked and dirty. It was still nice. Highlights: The air all the way up the trail was strong with the scent of Christmas trees. The Maple Museum – June 8 Off of route 9 is a gift shop named The Maple Museum. It closes at 6, but since she was awaiting a package from UPS, the lady there let me in at 6:20. The store has maple syrup of all grades and blends, plus maple candies of all kinds. It also carries baskets, shirts, books, postcards, salsas, sauces, figurines, and all the usual stuff you find in any gift shop. The one thing that really intrigued me was the maple soda. It wasn’t as good as I expected. 91-North – June 8 I decided to begin heading north that evening to the Willoughby area so I would have less distance to go the next morning. All the way north on 91 on both sides were small mountains and large hills covered in trees catching the light from the setting sun. Also, it seemed at times that I was the only one out on the road. Traffic was almost zero. It was very scenic and peaceful. The Wells River Motel – June 8 I stopped at the Wells River Motel for the night. It was nice, but more than I like spending. Also, I couldn’t get hot water in the shower the next morning. That was fun. 89-North – June 9 Since it was raining, I decided to skip Willoughby and head northwest on 89 to the aquarium in Burlington. If you think mountainous landscapes in the sun are cool, you’ve never seen them in the rain. Great, curling tentacles of mist wrapped around the mountains on either side of me barely a thousand feet over my head. These mountains were really more like very large hills, actually, although some were quite steep. ECHO Aquarium – June 9 The ECHO Aquarium in Burlington is directly on the shore of Lake Champlain. Its exhibits primarily concern the history, geology, and ecology of the lake, but there was also an exotic frog exhibit. There are no very large tanks, but I did see numerous fish, turtles, and frogs. I learned that a freshwater variety of dune grass grows nearby and that foreign zebra mussels encrust anything left on the lakebed. Isle La Motte – June 9 Later, I drove north to the Chazy Reef on Isle La Motte. The white-powder dirt roads of the islands turned my tires white by the time I got to the end. Half of the island is fossil reef including stromatolites, bryozoans, stromatoporoids, sponges, coral, and various mollusks. There are trails to take through the woods to see different rock formations with fossils in them. I didn’t see much. Most of it just looked like rock to me, but I did learn how to recognize fossil stromatoporoids, which are long-extinct, cabbage-like relatives of sponges that I had not heard of before. By this time, the rain had stopped, but it was still cold and windy. There was one location where the rock under my feet sounded hollow. Highlights: I saw a black and yellow snake, a long, thin, bright green beetle, and a bright red beetle with bright blue wing covers. Stillwater State Park – June 9 Returning southeast on 89 and route 2, I pulled into the Groton State Forest. A cluster of state parks are there. I pulled into Stillwater State Park hoping to find a campsite to spend the night (much cheaper than a motel). The park borders a lake and has restrooms, pay showers, a sandbox, a badmitten net, half a basketball court, and a swingset. I was one of only two campers in the entire campground of over fifty sites. That night it became extremely cold. I had to put on a sweatshirt, change into long pants, get out my heavy blanket and my beach towel just to be warm enough – and this was in June! Highlights: I saw a rabbit, a lightning bug, and heard what I think were owls all night. Owl’s Head Mountain – June 10 Still in Groton State Forest, I drove to Owl’s Head Mountain to do some mountain climbing. I was a bit disappointed with it. I drove ninety percent of the way to the top (that’s where the parking lot is) and the trees at the top only allow a 100-degree angle view. Still, it was a decent view for what it was. Afterwards, I took a trail down the non-steep side of the mountain and looped back to my car by way of the main road. In the half-hour it took me to walk on route 232, only four cars passed me. Highlights: I saw a very young, diseased, maple tree with hot pink blotches on the leaves. I saw two types of slugs, both up to four inches long. Kettle Pond – June 10 Still in Groton State Forest, I visited Kettle Pond and took the trail that wraps around it. Despite the flat grade, it was hard going due to all the rocks, roots, and mud. It took longer than I expected. There were no suitable beaches. Highlights: I saw two types of newts. 93-South – June 10 Deciding to return home early because of the unusually cold weather, I took 93 south to see the White Mountains. I noticed as soon as I passed the border from Vermont to New Hampshire that the thousand-foot hills that lined the road on both sides suddenly became vast mountains that sloped off away into the distance. The drive was largely uneventful. Please comment. In June 2009 I took a drive through Vermont for several days that included stops at the Maple Museum on Route 9 and the Chazy Fossil Reef on Isle La Motte. At the end of the week, I was off to visit “America’s Stonehenge” in Salem, New Hampshire. It is several acres of crisscrossing stone walls in the woods with a small cluster of stone “huts” in the center, some topped with dirt and moss. There is also a table and associated “speaking tube” through which one can speak through from a hidden place and make it seem as though the table is speaking. At the entrance to the woods is a combination gift shop and very small museum of artifacts found nearby.
The speaking tube is the most interesting. It reminds me of a program on the history channel documenting how the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and others used to use trickery and magic tricks to manipulate the masses into obedience. “Speaking tubes” of some kind were used in almost every major religion at the time. Nobody knows who built the structures in what is now Salem. Evidence suggests that many groups, from native Amerindians to migrant Celtic priests (who visited the new world before Columbus) to runaway slaves on the underground railroad have used the site at different times in the past. There is also evidence that Scottish Knights were at least in this region in the middle ages, even if not linked directly to this site. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found suggests that at least some sections were being used as early as 4000 years ago. Among the stone walls are large, flat, pointed stones standing upright. From a central location, these stones line up with the sunrise and sunset of each equinox, solstice, and several other dates important to some ancient societies. Other stones line up with important lunar events. I myself have some doubts about the importance of these rocks and wonder if they are being interpreted correctly. For one thing, there are actually two central points these rocks line up with. Some rocks line up with one point and some line up with another about fifteen feet away. For another thing, the rocks do not line up precisely. This is explained away as the drift of the Earth through space in the time since these stones were used and the time period these stones would have lined up is supposedly corroborated by radiocarbon dating, but it is believed the site was used over many thousands of years, so that explanation only brings up the question of why the stones weren’t moved since then. Also, I have doubts about the accuracy of all radiometric dating. For another thing, there are several additional stones that are not said to line up with anything of any importance. Since there are so many of them, I believe it possible that any perceived lineup could very well be a coincidence. These stones might not have been used for a calendar after all. If these stones were used as some sort of grand calendar built by a single group of people, why is it so sloppy? The stones are all different sizes, shapes, and distances from the center(s). Some have V-notches carved into them and some do not. Some are standing and some are not (it is claimed that some fell over). I can’t say that it isn’t a calendar, but nor can I be sure it is. There is a nice trail through the woods also. The rest of the day was uneventful. Please comment. |
AuthorMy name is Dan. I am an author, artist, explorer, and contemplator of subjects large and small. Archives
February 2023
Categories
All
|