It has quite suddenly become that time of year again when season has passed from summer to fall and the autumnal equinox is upon us. The equinox occurs twice a year when day and night are approximately equal in length across the globe. As we all learned in grade school Earth Science, the Vernal (Spring) Equinox occurs around March 20-21 in the Northern Hemisphere and the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox occurs around September 22-23 in the…
We all learned that Jane Goodall died today. Jane Goodall was a renowned British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist, best known for her groundbreaking research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. In 1960, at age 26, she began studying chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Her work revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzees and human evolution. She’s the person who discovered that chimps make and use tools, eat meat, and have complex social behaviors, findings that…
Yesterday I was on a ride out to the eastern part of the county to an area called Sunrise Highway. It is in the Laguna Mountains near the Mexican border and defines the line between the western and eastern parts of San Diego with the Carizzo Valley to the east that runs down towards the Salton Sea. The high plains basin of Lake Cuyamaca and the ridge line to the east of that are some…
Everything you read that seeks to give advice to our demographic bulge known as the Baby Boomers, tells you to avoid the sedentary life at all costs. A sedentary lifestyle is thought to be remarkably harmful to human health and is considered one of the most significant preventable health risks in modern society. There is an evolutionary mismatch between being sedentary and good health. We’re built for movement. Humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, walking 5-10+ miles…
I’ve always kept an eye on Echostar, the company that built out the Dish Network. That started about 35 years ago when I met my friend and VC mentor, Frank. Frank ran a venture capital business in the DC Beltway area and was wired into the Department of Defense technology vortex that spun out of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the U.S. Department of Defense’s primary research and development organization focused on breakthrough technologies…
I read a disturbing report this morning that probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did bring to mind an old expression…In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. This proverb has ancient roots, though its exact origin, like many proverbs is debated among scholars. The most commonly cited origin is that it is attributed to Desiderius Erasmus, the Dutch Renaissance humanist, who included it in his collection “Adagia” (1500-1536), a compilation…
Let me begin by stating that I value this hilltop VERY highly and we have no intention of leaving it soon. I am not so very voyeuristic about my home’s value that I tune into what my friend Steven calls Zillow Porn so very often. I am aware that Zillow has valued my home very much lower than I feel it deserves, but I understand the limitations of a vast algorithmically-driven service like Zillow and…
It’s hard not to notice what’s happening around the world. Gen Z is rebelling around the world, with youth-led protests erupting across multiple continents throughout 2024 and 2025. This global movement has toppled governments, forced policy reversals, and challenged established power structures in numerous countries. South Asia has seen the most dramatic changes. Three governments have fallen to youth-driven protests – Sri Lanka in 2022, Bangladesh in 2024, and Nepal this month (September 2025). Bangladesh’s…
The Ocotillo (Fouquieria Splendens) is one of the most distinctive and fascinating desert plants of the American Southwest. Kim and I (especially Kim) have been very fond of the plant for a dozen years, since we started exploring our desert surroundings. Our friend Natasha is crazy about the Joshua Tree (Yucca Brevifolia) a native Agave that grows in the Mojave Desert just east of here and is both the state plant of Nevada and is…
The “man in the moon” concept has ancient origins that span multiple cultures, arising from humans’ natural tendency to see faces and familiar shapes in random patterns (called pareidolia). The most widely recognized Western tradition comes from European folklore, where the dark patches on the moon’s surface were interpreted as facial features – typically two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Different cultures developed their own explanations for how this “man” ended up there. One…