Recent swarms of tremors under Mt. Rainier and Mt. Hood, 1100 in the last month, portend a risk of future eruption.
Mt Hood has seen a puff of smoke or steam on July 28th that scientists are describing as venting.

This began as a reflection upon a quote of the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis:

Catching Up isn't Hard to Do

After a week away from the news, I thought it might be a challenge to catch up to the current cycle. I'm reminded of a line from John Prine's "Hello in There"...all the news just seems to repeat itself like some forgotten dream that we've both seen. Russia continues to advance in Ukraine, the Palestinians are still being starved and killed (despite Bibi's denial), Tariffs are being used like sanctions to try to control other countries and impact BRICS+, the US continues to harass Iran and China...the only thing new was the Thai-Cambodia conflict which seems to have calmed down. The US (and global) economy seems to be a ticking time bomb designed to usher in "Stablecoins".

Afternoon folks!

There's a pile of great music this week for you. Starting off we've got some Chicago blues from Lonnie Brooks, followed by some Texas blues from relative unknowns T.D. Bell & Erbie Bowser, they're worth a listen. After that we've got a whole bunch of Louisiana-related music, starting off with Dr. John and Bluesiana Triangle followed by some older New Orleans r&b from Johnny Adams and then some zydeco from Clifton Chenier. Following that we've got some great acoustic rags and blues from Blind Boy Fuller and we finish up with a mostly acoustic album from Catfish Hodge.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Good morning, good people! (Assuming we are here and not nuked.)

So, Friday afternoon I figured out why Dear One had some symbiotic relationship with some birds. Saw it. Descriptions of what I saw will be in the comments.

I have some travel memories to share.

Check out my comments below for my travel musings.

Meanwhile, this is an open thread, which means all topics are welcome.

So sorry for the piecemeal stuff, but life intrudes!

Don't let my scattered life/thoughts/reading stop you from sharing with us what you believe we need to know.

Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.

Man, where does the time go? I turned another year older yesterday. Seems like I had a birthday just the other day. My friends tell me I look 10 years younger than I am. That's nice, but if given the choice of looking tens years younger or feeling 10 years younger, I'll choose feeling 10 years younger. I bet a lot of others here would make that same choice. They call these the Golden Years. Golden years my ass. Getting old sucks, or as my brother likes to say "This getting old shit is really starting to get old.".

Speaking of getting old, here are some old macro shots of some of the little critters I haven't see in the Balboa Park rose garden in years.

Assassin Bug