Daily Entries for the week of
Sunday, July 24, 2022
through
Saturday, July 30, 2022
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It’s Saturday, July 30, 2022
Welcome to the 1,521st consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Bullseye
A dart in the inner bullseye
Christian Gidlöf - Photo taken by Christian Gidlöf
Bullseye on a standard Harrows Bristle Board.
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Commentary
This is bill is a dart in the bullseye of what our economy needs.
It’s huge.
Manchin’s turnaround. (And God bless the men and women with the tenacity to stay negotiation with Sen. Manchin through what must have been very trying discussions.)
Critical that the bill gets passed now, esp w Democrats on the verge of losing control of Congress.
The loss of control appears irretrievable. Biden has made too many errors, for example, the inept handling of the immigration crisis on our southern border.
I don’t believe the policy changes incorporated in this bill will prevent an election catastrophe for the Dems, but they will greatly, greatly aid this country. The most important benefit: tens of thousands, eventually hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the areas towards which we need to direct our economy.
A most splendid bill.
An enormous bill.
If it passes.
What will this bill do?
It will spend and otherwise generate many hundreds of billions of dollars for climate and energy programs. Tens of thousands of well-paying jobs will be created. The package will include tax credits to speed up the development of wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear power; a tax credit to reduce the price of new electric vehicles; and money to address the disproportionate burden of pollution on low-income communities and communities of color.
Senate Democrats estimate that, by the end of the decade, the legislation will allow the U.S. to cut emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels. The bill would provide tax credits and other incentives to spur the development and deployment of clean energy and carbon abatement technologies. It also includes monetary incentives to help people buy clean cars, and would incentivize the increased domestic production of critical minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles.
It will reduce prescription drug prices
It will raise taxes on the affluent that will shrink the federal deficit. Emily Cochrane, Jim Tankersley and Lisa Friedman write: “The plan would raise most of its new tax revenue, an estimated $313 billion, by imposing a minimum tax on the so-called book income of large corporations, like Amazon and FedEx, that currently use tax credits and other maneuvers to reduce their tax rates below the 21 percent corporate income tax rate in the United States.”
Separately, the Senate yesterday passed an expansive, bipartisan bill to bolster U.S. manufacturing — especially of semiconductors — and to counter China’s geopolitical rise. The bill is expected to pass the House soon.
Separately, the cooling housing market is seeing lowering sales prices. And surely the arrival of remote work has dealt a body blow to the value of commercial property. A 33% drop I read somewhere. And the latest report on our GDP (5 minutes old as I write this) shows we are nudging a recession. These illustrate why I believe the feds .75% hike in interest rates was too large. Too too large. That’s not the sound of a locomotive. It’s the horror of forcing Americans out of jobs at a staggering cost to our economy.
We have a chance to redistribute some of the wealth immorally channeled to the powerful. Let’s not screw this up. No more rate hikes until we can see the impact of what’s already in place.
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Mail and other Conversation
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Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
I asked three of my friends-readers for some input on book comparison. I’m reprinting the reply from Tucker J, our fantasy media savant. He writes:`
Forgive the late reply. It sounds like maybe you’ve got your answer from Howard and James and I agree with their opinions having both read and seen the 2 black phone versions.
I did however want to offer up another work to compare your story to. We’ve talked about Neil Gaiman before but I think if you do a little digging on The Sandman you’ll see a lot of similarities between your story and his. I’m thinking from just a genre and marketing perspective it might be worth your time.
Synopsis -The Sandman's main character is Dream, the titular Sandman, also known to various characters throughout the series as Morpheus, Oneiros, the Shaper, the Shaper of Form, Lord of the Dreaming, the Dream King, Dream-Sneak, the Cat of Dreams, Murphy, Kai'ckul and Lord L'Zoril, who is the anthropomorphic personification of dreams. At the start of the series, Morpheus is captured by an occult ritual and held prisoner for 70 years. Morpheus escapes in the modern day and, after avenging himself upon his captors, sets about rebuilding his kingdom, which has fallen into disrepair in his absence.[57] The character's initial haughty and often cruel manner begins to soften after his years of imprisonment at the start of the series, but the challenge of undoing past sins and changing old ways is an enormous one for a being who has been set in his ways for billions of years.[58] In its beginnings, the series is a very dark horror comic. Later, the series evolves into an elaborate fantasy series, incorporating elements of classical and contemporary mythology, ultimately placing its protagonist in the role of a tragic hero.
The storylines primarily take place in the Dreaming, Morpheus's realm, and the waking world, with occasional visits to other domains, such as Hell, Faerie, Asgard, and the domains of the other Endless. Many use the contemporary United States of America and the United Kingdom as a backdrop. The DC Universe was the official setting of the series, but well-known DC characters and places were rarely featured after 1990. A notable exception is Lyta Hall, formerly Fury of the 1980s super-team Infinity, Inc., who figures prominently in the "Kindly Ones" story arc, and her superhuman abilities are not ignored. Most of the storylines take place in modern times, but many short stories are set in the past, taking advantage of the immortal nature of many of the characters, and deal with historical individuals and events such as in the short story "Men of Good Fortune."
The Sandman (comic book) - Wikipedia
.
Tucker
Blog meister responds: Is that amazing? Of course I will follow his suggestions. Have scheduled the movie tomorrow.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
I had a leftover dinner of kielbasa and bean soup. The kielbasa provided me with one of the worst meals I’ve ever prepared.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
scaffolding going up at my building for exterior repairs.
Work to take months.
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Short Essay*
The bullseye or bull's eye has, since 1833, been the name for the center of a target and, by extension, since 1857, has been given to any throw, toss, or shot that hits the center.
In a further development, success in an endeavor in which there is such inherent difficulty that most people are far more likely to choose, do, or identify something that is either unfortunately only close to or dismissively far from the ideal or necessary thing to choose can be called "hitting the bull's eye."
The center of the target may have come to be called the bull's eye from the practice of English archers who, both to develop and to exhibit their skills, would attempt to shoot an arrow through the eye socket of a bull's skull.
In some archery traditions the term "gold" is used in preference to "bullseye". In target archery, hitting the center ring of an international target is worth 10 points, or 9 points if it's an Imperial target.
In Japanese archery, known as Kyūdō, the bullseye is called "zuboshi". The term is also used as idiomatic slang just as it is in English, to note that someone has done or said something that hits "right on the nose."
In darts, the bullseye is located 5 foot 8 inches (1.73m) above the floor.[4] Before the start of a match players will usually throw closest to the bullseye to decide who has the advantage of throwing first. An inner bullseye (sometimes referred to as a "double bullseye" in amateur play) is a smaller, inner circle and counts for 50 points while an outer bull is worth 25 points. In the World Grand Prix, which has a double start format, an inner bullseye can begin a leg. In the dart golf game, the bullseye is used as part of a three-part tie breaker that also includes the treble twenty.
Hitting three bullseyes in darts is known as the "Alan Evans shot".
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Friday, July 29, 2022
Welcome to the 1,520th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Ayn Rand
Rand in 1943
Photo portrait credited to "Talbot" (though not on original dust jacket). Published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. - Scan via rohrbachlibrary.wordpress.com (direct link to jpg). The portrait as originally published on the dust jacket of The Fountainhead can be seen at this listing on Worthpoint.
Photo portrait of Russian-American writer Ayn Rand used for the first-edition back cover of her novel The Fountainhead (1943).
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Commentary
I object to the latest interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve. Year-to-date it has increased its target federal funds rate to 2.25-2.50%.
A .75% increase is unjustified. I think .25% now and another look at things in a month would have been moderate.
People are working. Making money.
Tackle specific problem areas like gas, prescription drugs, and computer chip manufacture one at a time.
Do not knock people out of trheir jobs.
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Writing
I am deliciously on routine. I am finally able to write my blog, submit to an agent, and edit my next novel every day.
Feels good.
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Word of the Day:
FUNGIBLE
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Wellness
After my third sleep-deprived night in five days I popped two 5mg melatonin pills and had my longest sleep in a month: six hours.
Side effects: I got a spell of drowsiness after a couple of hours awake and I had two dreams, me a dreamless sleeper.
My plans are to go back on melatonin starting with 10mg a night. I will increase my intake as needed, with a max of 20mg. When that stops working, I’ll go cold turkey without any sleep aids. .
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Understanding aging
I am feeling terrific. After the bike injury, after a bout of great fatigue (covid?) I am feeling terrific.
What’s going on?
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Social Life
August is grinding closer when I will be very busy indeed.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
I learned the value of hard work by working hard.
~Margaret Mead
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
Much of the day’s communication was a comparison of my manuscript to the horror flick, The Black Phone.
Blog meister responds:
The conclusion was that my manuscript is really a New Adult genre, written for and about people beyond teenagerhood, with a touch of horror on those few occasions our protagonist faces off against Satan. The Black Phone is horror.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Dinner was at the pop-up version that Summer Shack has opened in Harvard sq. The restaurant is running into October of this year. If you don’t get a chance to go, you won’t be missing anything. If you do get a chance to go, look for an alternative.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Flowers in P Garden July 2022
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Short Essay*
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;[a] February 2 [O.S. January 20], 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (/aɪn/), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher.[2] She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.
Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge; she rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism and rejected altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed collectivism, statism, and anarchism. Instead, she supported laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights, including private property rights. Although Rand opposed libertarianism, which she viewed as anarchism, she is often associated with the modern libertarian movement in the United States. In art, Rand promoted romantic realism. She was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her, except for Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and classical liberals.
Rand's fiction received mixed reviews from literary critics. Although academic interest in her ideas has grown since her death, academic philosophers have generally ignored or rejected her philosophy because of her polemical approach and lack of methodological rigor. Her writings have politically influenced some libertarians and conservatives. The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings.
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Definition of Today’s Word of the Day:
FUNGIBLE
(of goods contracted for without an individual specimen being specified) able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable:
"it is by no means the world's only fungible commodity"
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Thursday, July 28, 2022
Welcome to the 1,519th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant during his tenure with the Warriors
All-Pro Reels - https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeglo/47947330406/
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Commentary
Greed can be good. It propels many entrepreneurs to develop and pursue ideas that often contribute greatly to our economy.
But people can suck.
Case in point: Uber owners.
Their great idea is the creation of a working class that need show up for work any time it suits. Like an independent contractor.
Unlike an independent contractor, the compensation-for-work is severely limited. Uber executives take the fat bite out of the fares charged leaving the drivers to scramble to pay for gas and all other automotive maintenance and purchase with the leavings.
Come on, people.
Curb your greed.
Allow your drivers to thrive.
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Screen time
Have just finished watching the Hulu miniseries, The Drop Out. It was pretty good.
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Wellness
It appears that the bouts of extreme fatigue that last several days that I experienced over the last couple of years were likely my response to the covid virus. I did contract covid. Not ever diagnosed for the disease, but showing the symptoms.
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Social Life
August is really filling up. My daughter added a day to her visit late in the month so she could spend a day with her twin cousins, Tessa and Savannah. My niece Lisa has booked an overnight visit for me early in the month. Wow! What a popular guy I am.
And loving it.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship.
~Margaret Mead
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from our architect friend, Jack H.
You have apparently finished the book.
Congratulations.
It would be wonderful if it sells, but the completion of a work of art is what counts, first and foremost.
I’m very glad to hear it.
Blog meister responds: All struggling artists would agree with that, my friend. Thank you.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
On Tuesday, I had a leftover dinner of Turkey Meatballs and Lasagna.
It was fine.
I need a dinner out.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Shakespeare on the Boston Common July, 2022
What fun: Much Ado About Nothing
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Short Essay*
Kevin Wayne Durant (/dəˈrænt/; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for the Texas Longhorns, and was selected as the second overall pick by the Seattle SuperSonics in the 2007 NBA draft. He played nine seasons with the franchise, which became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008, before signing with the Golden State Warriors in 2016, winning consecutive NBA championships in 2017 and 2018. After sustaining an Achilles injury in the 2019 finals, he joined the Nets as a free agent that summer. Durant is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
Durant was a heavily recruited high school prospect who was widely regarded as the second-best player in his class. In college, he won numerous year-end awards and became the first freshman to be named Naismith College Player of the Year. As a professional, he has won two NBA championships, an NBA Most Valuable Player Award, two Finals MVP Awards, two NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Awards, four NBA scoring titles, the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, been named to ten All-NBA teams (including six First Teams), and selected 12 times as an NBA All-Star. In 2021, Durant was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.[5] As a member of the U.S. men's national team, Durant has won three gold medals in the Olympics (2012, 2016, and 2020) and is the leading scorer in Team USA's men's Olympic basketball history. He also won gold at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.
Off the court, Durant is one of the highest-earning basketball players in the world, due in part to endorsement deals with companies such as Foot Locker and Nike. He has developed a reputation for philanthropy and regularly leads the league in All-Star votes and jersey sales. In recent years, he has contributed to The Players' Tribune as both a photographer and writer. In 2012, he ventured into acting, appearing in the film Thunderstruck.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Welcome to the 1,513th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Nope
A poster featuring a horse being pulled into the air.
http://www.impawards.com/2022/nope_ver2.html
This is a poster for Nope. The poster art copyright is believed to belong to the distributor of the film, Universal Pictures, the publisher of the film or the graphic artist.
Nope is a 2022 American science fiction horror film written, directed, and co-produced by Jordan Peele under his Monkeypaw Productions banner. It stars Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Wrenn Schmidt, and Keith David. In the film, two ranch-owning siblings attempt to capture video evidence of an unidentified flying object.
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Commentary
In view of what’s happening in the rest of the world, the American economy is proving resilient. And the best part of it is employment. Although I would personally like to see an even lower unemployment rate.
Realizing that the government must continue to take steps to slow inflation, I’d rather see ad hoc changes like attacking the prices of prescription drugs and gas and encouraging semi-conductor manufacture within America.
I get nervous contemplating global economic events like a too-high hike in interest rates to brake the economy and slow job creation or worse. Do not lay off American workers.
Do renew efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour for inexperienced workers.
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Word of the Day: titular
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Screen time
Read Tucker in Mail and Short Essay just below.
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Wellness/Aging
After six days of on-again, off-again sleep, I’m on again and feeling quite well and energetic.
I took two three-mile walks interspersed with a session lifting weights.
I’m impressed until I realize that
I used to do that regularly and now must accept that this will happen only now and again.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
What people say,
what people do, and
what they say they do are entirely different things.
~Margaret Mead
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This from Tucker J.
I saw a terrific movie called Nope this weekend and really had to write about it. It’s one of the best of the year!
· Tucker
Blog meister responds: Besides his academic underpinnings of his reviews, don’t you just love his enthusiasm?
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Leftover meats gives cook many options including a Cacciatore with its olive oil and garlic base or one of many Chinese preparations, like Black Bean or Gochujang, or Hoisin with their pastes and sesame oil.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
flowers flowers everywhere in Boston's Public Garden
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Short Essay*
by Tucker Johnson
Applying the saying “third time’s the charm” to Jordan Peele’s new thriller, Nope, would be a loaded way of describing the film’s success. Especially considering Peele’s two previous films, Us and the Oscar-winning Get Out were runaway successes. Get Out exploded on the scene as a modern masterpiece, sliding back and forth from comedy to sociological horror. The film boils away genre cliches and finds a number of dark epiphanies about race and identity in America. Us has a plot as complex as Get Out’s is simple, intricately layering symbols, gimmicks, and money shots to a point that by the end of the film it feels like too much of a good thing. In many ways Us felt like the work of a man who had proven he could make a good movie and got hung up on the idea of making an even better one. I’m happy to say that with Nope, inspiration and perspiration evenly balance both sides of the scale.
Nope telegraphs it’s broad, spectacular scope before the film even begins. Every poster released for the film excitedly mentions it was shot on IMAX cameras by the gifted Dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema who has grown famous in the US for shooting epically scaled films from Christopher Nolan and a recent James Bond entry. Peele’s previous films has all been well shot but Nope is hugely scaled comparatively speaking he uses Hoytema’s penchant for swooping, God’s eye camera work to its fullest.
Peele made his name on two films that were marketed as horror pieces and even though Nope’s trailers and tv spots didn’t shy away from the idea that you might get spooked the director understands this project’s mandate and focuses much more on achieving widescreen grandeur. He also manages some intensely sustained moments of contemplation by creating scenes in which we’re not sure what we’re looking at, or why. Peele also creates moments o genuine awe, the same cosmic, wide eyed wonder that films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind brought to audiences back in 1977. Peele does incredible work capitalizing on Steven Spielberg’s influence on this kind of cinema and more accurate the expectations we all have from it.
In telling the story of a pair of brother-sister horse trainers trying to photograph an elusive extra terrestrial object hovering in the sky over their expansive Agua Dulce rance, Jordan Peele basically allegorizes his own filmmaking process. “Since the moment pictures could move, we had skin in the game” announces Keke Palmer’s Emerald Haywood as part of her spiel before a commercial shoot with one of her family’s horses. She’s letting the cast and crew know that her family’s hardy efforts as stuntmen and animal wranglers across decades are worthy of remembrance but after noting that Eadweard Muybridge’s pioneering 19th century moving image study of a galloping horse and rider featured an African American jockey, she’s met with crickets. Without putting too fine a point on it, Peele is calling attention to the racial inequities of Hollywood history as well as putting his own success as a black filmmaker under a microscope.
The main concept of Nope is about the sacrifices and drudgery that go into getting the perfect shot. More specifically, it’s a study about how hard it is to persuasively capture a close encounter in a way that viewers will think is real. That Peele makes it harder than expected to actually see the big, circular thing menacing the Haywoods is perfectly in keeping with the running motif of vision and perspective the film plays with.
There’s another intersecting artistic metaphor on offer here, however, and it’s considerably wilder. Nope begins with a cold open featuring a blood-streaked, intently staring chimpanzee, a terrifying yet oddly touching figure who silently meets and returns our gaze with an ambiguous, unsettling mix of recognition and rage. The monkey business of Nope’s prologue is a freaky, enigmatic fragment that fits into the film’s larger cryptozoological puzzle in ways that are both narratively satisfying and thematically apt. In short: Whether you’re dealing with trained apes or ancient aliens, humility in the face of something potentially dangerous or unpredictable is surely preferable to hubris.
We slowly learn why we’ve seen this opening when we meet a character played by Steven Yeun, smartly cast as a former ’90s child star nursing memories of that chimp-related, on-set trauma and trying to transcend his guilt through his own form of show business make-believe. The common thread weaving together Nope’s two main narrative strands—three if you count the arc of the acerbic veteran cinematographer Antlers Holst (Michael Wincott), who begrudgingly agrees to help the Haywoods only to commit fully the project—is the idea of catharsis through entertainment, which Peele doesn’t so much advocate as examine. Nope is jam packed full of ideas and especially in 2022 it’s admirable to see a director who thinks enough of his audience to confront and confuse them instead of simply cranking out set pieces.
About those set pieces, one passage, soundtracked to Corey Hart’s Sunglasses at Night, is probably the tensest, funniest, and grossest thing that Peele has ever directed, drenched in torrential downpour (and other fluids) and steeped in pit-of-your-stomach dread. He also gets very carefully modulated performances out of Kaluuya and Palmer, whose characters are behavioral opposites—he’s sullen and withdrawn; she’s nervy and extroverted—but feel plausibly like they came from the same stock. In particular, Nope is a showcase for Palmer, who’s got just the right alert, skeptical presence for a horror movie that slow-plays its revelations. By the time she’s convinced something uncanny is going on, so are we. Her terror is hilarious—and contagious.
To return to the idea that Nope is being sold as a Close Encounters riff, the difference between Spielberg in 1977 and Peele in 2022 is that the former was still in the process of reinventing movie spectacle in his own image. Peele is fated to work as a post-millennial postmodernist for whom nothing—no sci-fi trope, no horror-movie gross-out, no plot twist—is truly new under the sun. Which is ultimately why Nope—with its relentless, ambient, pressurized tension—feels a lot closer to the primal fears of Jaws. The irritable yet affectionate interplay between the characters of Nope seems to purposefully conjure memories of the men who captained the Orca. Holst is absolutely a modern incarnation of Robert Shaw’s shark hunter Quint, wielding a hand-cranked camera in place of a harpoon.
Jaws is one of the greatest movies of its era, and it might be too hasty to throw that praise at this film. But at the same time, the inflated dimensions of Nope and the increasingly eccentric nature of its spectacle suggest that Peele is working at least partially with posterity in mind. When Peele frames a horse running at top speed through the wooden slats of a stable in a visual imitation of an old-school kinetoscope, he’s clearly going for something larger. If his reach slightly exceeds his grasp, it’s only because he’s trying to get his mitts on something so gargantuan. His ambition is showing, but his hands are steady.
· Tucker
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Definition of Today’s word:
titular: holding or constituting a purely formal position or title without any real authority:
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Welcome to the 1,512th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Electric Aircraft
The Velis Electro became the first type certificated crewed electric aircraft on 10 June 2020.
Andrejcheck - Own work
The Pipistrel Velis Electro s/n 003 sitting at Ajdovščina airport after rollout from the assembly line. The rear battery cooling system air intake is visible behind the left door.
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Commentary
Trump was right when he called Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to participate in the January 6 Committee hearings dumb. It was a blown chance to point out weaknesses in the testimonies. Any legitimate trial deserves to have views challenged.
At the least, the Trump Republicans could have reduced the impact of the elaborate production values the committee brought to the hearings. And the hearings were in fact impressive. Daytime viewership was substantially above 10,000,000 and evening viewership approached 20,000,000.
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Writing
I’m catching up on my writing and by the time socially-busy August kicks in, next week, I should be prepared for a bit of slippage in productivity.
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Word of the Day: Misophonia
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Screen time
As poorly done as is Gray Man, and it is trite and boring, The Old Man is well done. This Hulu series is a solid, well-constructed thriller with several interesting plot lines that are well-timed and interwoven. A finely written script and great acting makes this great television,
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Wellness
The sixth night of erratic sleep has taken its toll. My productivity is down.
I took a short walk and stayed home the rest of the day.
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Social Life
No engagements until August 1.
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Thoughts
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~Margaret Mead
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
A friend writes about the blurb that was favorable to Nikki Haley.
“Nikki Haley is an adept politician who looks good. Otherwise, I am horrified that she may become a powerful figure in our government. She didn't support the arts in South Carolina and in fact, did everything possible to deny any financial support for the arts while governor. It was a battle and the creative mark makers won. The only positive action she made during her term as governor was removing the Confederate Battle Flag from atop the Capitol dome. However, the times were ripe for her to do it following the horrible massacre in Charleston.”
Blog meister responds: In a better world, i totally agree, my dear. But for me, we have only a single electoral goal: retire that most hateful of popular leaders. ANYTHING that will accomplish that is worth the price.
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Food/Recipes
Any assortment of broccoli, asparagus, carrots, zucchini, bell pepper, snow peas, and shallots cut to chopstick size and cooked to still-crispy. I like to use those inexpensive plastic steamers-for-microwave. So easy and so accurate.
On hand: A slurry of: 1TB+ corn starch and 1TB cold chicken stock or cold water
Sauce:
½ cup stock
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB hoisin sauce
1 TB Asian/sesame oil
2 TB honey/brown sugar
Heat sauce then add slurry
Cook for 1-2 minutes
Toss in cooked veggies and cook together for 1 to 2 minutes.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Dress I almost bought on newbury st for a friend
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Short Essay*
What's next? Electric aviation
An electric aircraft is an aircraft powered by electricity, almost always via one or more electric motors which drive propellers. Electricity may be supplied by a variety of methods, the most common being batteries. Electrically powered model aircraft have been flown at least since the 1970s and were the forerunners of the small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones, which in the twenty-first century have become widely used for many purposes.
Although crewed flights in an electrically powered tethered helicopter go back to 1917 and in airships to the previous century, the first crewed free flight by an electrically powered aeroplane, the MB-E1, was not made until 1973 and most crewed electric aircraft today are still only experimental prototypes. Between 2015 and 2016, Solar Impulse 2 completed a circumnavigation of the Earth using solar power. More recently, interest in electric passenger aircraft has grown, for both commercial airliners and personal air vehicles,[1] in part to limit the environmental impact of aviation.
All-electric "seagliders" could someday offer fast, low-altitude flights in coastal communities and the Hawaiian Islands, Joann Muller writes for Axios What's Next.
Why it matters: Electric aviation is the next frontier in the movement of people and goods.
What's happening: Better batteries, lighter-weight materials and other innovations — plus huge capital investments — are opening the door to novel and lower-emissions transportation solutions like flying taxis, drones and seagliders.
"It's a space race all over again," Billy Thalheimer, CEO of seaglider startup Regent Craft, tells Axios.
Boston-based Regent is partnering with Hawaiian carrier Mokulele Airlines and investment firm Pacific Current to create a seaglider network in Hawaii.
Service is expected to begin by 2025 with a fleet of 12-passenger Viceroy seagliders that will fly like pelicans, about 10 to 30 feet over the water, at speeds of up to 180 miles per hour.
Hawaiian Airlines recently invested in Regent, with an eye toward building a 100-person version of the craft by 2028.
The idea is to offer a cheaper, faster, cleaner alternative to existing ferries and regional air service.
Seagliders are neither fish nor fowl — while they fly at low altitudes, they're expected to be regulated by maritime authorities, which could mean an easier path to commercialization, says Thalheimer.
Operating a seaglider will be more like driving a boat than piloting an aircraft, he says.
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Definition of Today’s word:
Misophonia is a disorder of decreased tolerance to specific sounds or their associated stimuli Reactions to trigger sounds range from anger and annoyance to activating a fight-or-flight response.
The condition is sometimes called selective sound sensitivity syndrome. Common triggers include oral sounds (e.g., loud breathing, chewing, swallowing), clicking sounds (e.g., keyboard tapping, finger tapping, windshield wipers), and sounds associated with movement (e.g., fidgeting). Oftentimes, hated sounds are repetitive in nature.
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Monday, July 25, 2022
Welcome to the 1,512th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Ellen DeGeneres in 2004
photo by Alan Light
Ellen DeGeneres at Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles attending Oprah Winfrey's birthday party.
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Commentary
In this quiet social moment I am catching up on my reading and writing.
Meanwhile, in the last six nights I have had three of only 1.5 hours sleep, and three of 5.0 hours sleep.
So far, I’ve made all days productive.
I woke at 12.30am this Saturday morning and by 3.50am I had a leisurely breakfast, I’ve shaved, I worked on both my blog and my submissions. My cousin Lauren texted me about 3.30am and we chatted a moment or two. She’s gone to sleep now. I’m typing this.
I worked an hour on my next submission and got it off. It’s 4.22am.
I’m going to close my eyes for 10 minutes before I restart my work.
Twenty minutes later I’m back typing.
I took an hour’s rest at 4.45am and am back typing @ 5.45am.
And so my day went.
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Word of the Day: TANGENTIAL
For definition, see below, immediately after the Short Essay
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Understanding aging
Here are some symptoms I’ve listed on the process.
Shaking of my hand is quietly obvious to me.
Standing. Used to be effortless. Becomes a minor event requiring a push-off with my hands.
Endurance. Slowly fading.
Strength. Slowly fading.
Malaise. Bouts of it slowly increasing.
Aches and pains. Every morning, on waking, one or more, here or there.
Social life. Slowly fading.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
Always remember that you are absolutely unique.
Just like everyone else.
~Margaret Mead
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
After seeing our posted photograph, our dear contractor-architect friend of many decades, Jack H, sent this. The link is to an excellent presentation of the story of Sacco and Vanzetti.
https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.famous-trials.com%2Fsaccovanzetti%2F766-home&data=05%7C01%7C%7Cf8d7bd7d567449b0c07508da6c642c13%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637941474731756996%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=rA04U1IiPSLaQp4r3PR9yG28NKG11TXh%2BiQymmvlOLk%3D&reserved=0
Dom,
I thought you might be interested in this article. There is so much more to the story than as I had it constructed in my head as we worked on the project - I felt so good about its design by the end that it was anticlimactic for it to stall out as it did, but it was perhaps better that way.
How are you?
Jack
Blog meister responds: A terrific link. Well, Jack. I’m aging but well.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
A had a terrific dinner of Shrimp with Chinese vegetables. I’ll write up a recipe soon.
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Pictures with Captions from our community**
Crowd in Boston’s summer public garden
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Short Essay*
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (often shortened to Ellen or The Ellen Show) is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was produced by Telepictures and aired in syndication. The majority of stations owned by NBC Owned Television Stations, along with Hearst Television and Tegna, served as the program's largest affiliate base. For its first five seasons, the show was taped in Studio 11 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. From season 6 onwards, the show moved to being taped at Stage 1 on the nearby Warner Bros. lot. Since the beginning of the sixth season, The Ellen DeGeneres Show has been broadcast in high definition.
The show received 171 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and won 61 Daytime Emmy Awards as of 2021, including four for Outstanding Talk Show and seven for Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment, making 11 total awards and surpassing the record held by The Oprah Winfrey Show, which won nine as Outstanding Talk Show before it was divided into two categories (Informative and Entertainment) in 2008. The show also won 17 People's Choice Awards. On May 21, 2019, DeGeneres announced she had signed for three more years, renewing the show through 2022. The eighteenth season premiered on September 21, 2020. On May 12, 2021, DeGeneres announced that the nineteenth season would be her last. It premiered on September 13, 2021.
The final episode aired on Thursday, May 26, 2022, as previously announced on March 17, 2022. Affiliate stations on which Ellen's show aired are set to continue to run the program throughout the summer (until the traditional start of the new television season in September) with guest hosts, compilation shows and repeats.
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Definition of Today’s word:
Tangential: hardly touching a matter; peripheral:
"the reforms were tangential to efforts to maintain a basic standard of life"
* The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Pictures with Captions from our community are photos sent in by our blog followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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It’s Sunday, July 24, 2022
Welcome to the 1,511th consecutive post to the blog
existentialautotrip.com
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Lead Picture*
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley official photo as the 29th United States Ambassador to the United Nations
United States Department of State - https://usun.state.gov/leadership
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Commentary
Well, the 187 investigation made a lot of progress on Thursday night.
Eyewitness testimony filled in many of the blanks in the three-hour-plus scenario during which Donald Trump stymied law enforcement and gave the insurrectionists time to catch Vice President Mike Pence, try him on the spot, and hang him.
This most loyal of Vice Presidents.
In the event, Pence escaped and is campaigning for President.
This man has presidential stature.
Time for Trump to go home.
The loser.
The big L.
On my forehead, please, where he can see his reflection.
Loser, Donald.
The big L.
Mike Pence for President.
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Chuckles and Thoughts
It's a naive domestic Burgundy without any breeding,
but I think you'll be amused by its presumption.
~James Thurber
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Wellness
I had my teeth cleaned on Monday.
I had my feet looked at on Wednesday. It was suggested I buy New Balance Walking Shoe which has a soft, pliable leather top. He also pointed out my ankles were swollen and suggested a return trip to my PCP. I texted him on Friday and got a Monday appointment.
I visited a chiropractor on Thursday. He made me feel better and set up one more appointment for next Thursday.
A lot of medical attention.
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Social Life
In the coming week, I have a social pause: no meetings/dates.
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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts.
Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192
This days’ communications had to do with social events coming up in August, including a day-trip to Newport, an overnight to New Hampshire, a dinner with my daughter, and a celebratory dinner for cousin Lauren’s new job, and a large event for my family, no restrictions on numbers.
Blog meister responds: The planning of the events, of course, is a whole lot of fun. And I thank everyone for the enjoyment.
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Dinner/Food/Recipes
Ground turkey makes excellent meatballs. I had them for dinner on Friday with some leftover Gravy.
I have enough meatballs for another meal and I’ll just fry them and serve them with Chinese-style vegetables.
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Community Photos**
Sacco and Vanzetti
Our ad hoc group had fun together working for a lost cause.
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Short Essay*
Nimrata Nikki Haley (née Randhawa; born January 20, 1972[1]) is an American diplomat and politician who served as the 116th and first female governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, and as the 29th United States ambassador to the United Nations for two years, from January 2017 to January 2019.
Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, and earned an accounting degree from Clemson University. She joined her family's clothing business, before serving as treasurer and president of the National Association of Women Business Owners. First elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2004, she served three terms. In 2010, during her third term, she was elected governor of South Carolina, and she won re-election in 2014. Haley was the first female governor of South Carolina, the youngest governor in the country and the second governor of Indian descent (after fellow Republican Bobby Jindal of Louisiana). She was the first female Asian American governor, and in 2017 became the first Indian American in a presidential cabinet.
Haley served as United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 96–4 vote, and was sworn in in January 2017. She affirmed the United States's willingness to use military force in response to further North Korean missile tests in the wake of the 2017–2018 North Korea crisis. She strongly defended Israel at the Security Council, and led the effort to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations Human Rights Council. She voluntarily stepped down as Ambassador on December 31, 2018.
*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily or exclusively on Wikipedia to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.
**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com
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