The Doldrums The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is a band of weather where the Northern Hemisphered winds meet the Southern Hemisphere winds in an area that approximates five degrees on either side of the Equator. Because of the heat in that zone, it is typical that the air is driven straight up, leaving a noticeable lack of surface wind and thus creating a becalming situation for sailors. The doldrums are thus characterized as a time of…
Burn, Baby, Burn Like every other homeowner in the western United States, I am going through a crisis of homeowner’s insurance. I know I am not alone and, in fact, the rising tide of catastrophic losses from natural disasters combined with the escalation in the value of homes and the replacement cost of homes have all contributed to a steep rise in the cost of homeowner protection insurance. I often quote my friend Joe, who…
Virtual Reality VR has been with us since 1968 (some would say a form of it was invented in 1838). The flight simulation business was all over in in the early and mid 1970s. By the 1990s, companies like Nintendo were using the early versions of the technology for gaming. By 2012 we had Google Glass and Oculus Rift out there vying for consumers adoption, but the market was still very small. By 2019 there…
The Big Mo Everybody knows what I’m talking about and the word is on everyone’s lips these days…momentum. Obviously I am mostly talking about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as their campaigning goes from swing state to swing state, rattling the voters’ cages and beating the drum. Strangely enough, there seems to be little of an artificial nature to it. There is genuine enthusiasm for the Harris/Walz ticket and it is leading to record-setting fundraising,…
Babysitting Buddy After a weeklong roadtrip with Buddy having to board with a bunch of other pups and not getting his regular due of play and attention, we prefer to keep him at home for a while rather than taking the more convenient path of putting him right back into day care. We are pretty sure that he doesn’t mind day care, but we are also pretty sure that he prefers being at home. I…
The Vortex There are certain places in our lives, which we pass through regularly and which have special meaning to us. For me, one such place is the area between Las Vegas and Torrey, Utah. The highlights of that region go from Mesquite Nevada to the Virgin Valley Gorge, which is actually a part of Arizona, St. George, Utah, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Cedar Breaks and the entire area surrounding Torrey, with…
The Heat is On The high today on our hilltop is projected to be 96 degrees. Our entire day yesterday was spent driving through triple-digit temperatures. It was 97 in Salt Lake City at the base of the Wasatch Mountains. It was 113 in Las Vegas as we drove through, needing to detour onto Las Vegas Boulevard for five miles due to replacing of Rt. 15, and it was even 108 degrees as we went…
Approaching Singularity Recently I was sent a book by a colleague who was surprised that I had not read Ray Kurzweil and his two books called The Singularity is Near and the more recent The Singularity is Nearer. Kurzweil is both an inventor and a futurist who has become largely acclaimed as the guru of AI prognostication. The term “singularity” is taken from math and physics and means that special point in a mathematical function…
Veepstakes Well, all the cards are on the table now that Kamala Harris has chosen Governor Tim Walz of the great state of Minnesota as her running mate. As we all know, the final beauty contest occurred this weekend with visits to her by Walz, Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. In theory, Shapiro and Kelly might have helped Harris in the key battleground swing states they are from, but…
It’s All Greek to Me We are wrapping up our western summer roadtrip today, heading home on a long stretch of road from Salt Lake City to our hilltop, 718 miles. I like driving out west and all I need is a good book to listen to from Audible and I can go for miles and miles. We are leaving from the home of our dear, dear friends Deb and Melissa, who have a lovely…