skipper

  • If the reader has ever had a garden, they know the real trouble spot is weeds. Weeds sneak into the lawn or garden as tiny, well behaved plants; they may even have flowers. But gardeners know very quickly the nice […]

    • I’ve been watching this year’s World Series. You’d be amazed at the number of AI “services” (apps, whatever the term is) that have been advertised.

  • A cogent response – evolution never learned to use scissors so shifts in history are always vague and take lots of time.

  • This post shares some of mariner’s concerns for the future of Homo sapiens. In order to take a full measure, the first item is about Homos the way they were bred to be – properly balanced with requirements […]

    • Aldous Huxley had a lot to say about Savages in Postmodern Society back in 1932 and I think he had a finger on the pulse of humanity even then (and how much has happened since?)

      My hot take: there’s no such thing as an uncontacted tribe and hasn’t been for a couple decades at least. Traditional Amazonian tribes have known civilized South American poachers, loggers, rubber harvesters, slash-and-burn farmers, fishermen, soldiers, pilots, and God knows who else for generations. There’s no unexplored corner of the globe. Low-earth-orbit satellites map those “real, unsynthesized” jungle huts and foraging spots hourly.

      I’m sorry, but real, unsynthesized humanity is launching the satellites and burning the carbon and dynamiting those aborigines from above. Allowing the 196 tribes to live in peace would be a very human gesture, but it seems unlikely. Assuming those tribes even prefer to avoid contact in the long term … I mean who doesn’t want a car and some antibiotics, even in the depths of the Amazon?

      • A cogent response – evolution never learned to use scissors so shifts in history are always vague and take lots of time.

  • Gardeners are well into autumn, planting new bulbs and plants to bloom next Spring, clearing out finished stalks and annuals – and weeds. Potted plants must come into winter shelter as well as garden plants that […]

  • skipper wrote a new post, YIKES! 1 month, 2 weeks ago

    Mariner went online today to check his email, where he has links to news and culture sources not contaminated by the distortions of broadcast television or the free-wheeling imagination on social media gossip […]

  • Mariner felt good reading the AXIOS piece about analog bags referenced in the last post. In his own romantic naturalist mind, he can see a correlation between a mindset focused on self survival in an AI world and […]

  • The latest must-have accessory is a “stop-scrolling bag” — a tote packed with analog activities like watercolors and crossword puzzles.

    Why it matters: We pick up our phones 100+ times a day and spend hours g […]

  • In October 2024, mariner wrote a post in response to a challenge to describe ‘Armageddon’, a frequent term he uses to describe the future. Copied from that post, though not fully annotated, are the four elements […]

  • Pondering here could balloon into an uncontrollable pile of useless words. Nevertheless, mariner will take a shot at a large question he has that has interpretive references going all the way back to the Assyrians […]

  • I agree that faith is a real squirrel as society changes. I always try to tie it to a humanistic behavior. Otherwise, it has no shape.
    Clearly, to me, hope is a prayer for grace while faith defines the grace.

  • Faith is a brain function that helps humans survive. Faith is a decision maker that is necessary for human survival because humans can imagine anything – reasonable or not – and claim it as real. Without faith, […]

    • I agree that faith is a real squirrel as society changes. I always try to tie it to a humanistic behavior. Otherwise, it has no shape.
      Clearly, to me, hope is a prayer for grace while faith defines the grace.

  • As regular readers know, mariner spends a lot of time in Nosey Mole’s tunnels, thereby avoiding broadcast TV news. He spends his time reading and watching more cogent and thoughtful reports in professional […]

  • Mariner is a gardener. He has a Masters from Junk University (YouTube). So right off the top, he will acknowledge that most Homos are weeds. To give credit where credit is due, some weeds can be useful and […]

  • It’s one of those times again when mariner’s wife has gone visiting for a few days. There are several related responses to his sudden isolation. On the first day, there is a sense of free space where decorum is […]

  • Mariner’s philologist friend and he have a special dictionary of stressed or highly truncated words that are intriguing. His friend’s latest contribution is ‘supwier’. Usually, mariner gives the reader time to […]

  • Trump Canceled 94 Million Pounds of Food Aid in the United States.

    The cancellations began in mid-May, when over 100 orders of 2% milk bound for 31 states were halted.

    The records show 4,304 canceled […]

    • I would also point out that the “Trump Bibles” are missing the 11th through the 27th amendments from its version of the US Constitution. I guess he found the amendments regarding slavery’s abolishment and removal from office for mental incapacitation cumbersome.

  • Walton Family Foundation and Gallup’s latest Teaching for Tomorrow report finds that while most teachers engage in professional development, the most beneficial opportunities — like peer collaboration — are oft […]

  • Really LOCAL press. That is, press coverage if it were about YOUR life. Some examples to set the pace: first, mariner traveled a lot in his career; second is the never ending discounting of women’s […]

  • Anyone who studies ancient history of any kind runs into a phenomenon called an Age. Ages are slow – really slow. Depending on which field of history one is studying, for example Earth science, Ages can last as […]

  • Mariner’s normal inclination is to see the world through the eye of a sociologist. The core of sociology is the study of results from human social patterns and aspects of culture associated with everyday […]

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