.
The voting for the camera local ended last night. I do not know the schedule for the other 12 local unions, but the final tabulation should be completed within a few days. Although predictions are worth basically nothing, I cannot resist playing pundit and I predict the contract will pass by a total vote of around 70%, with the lower paying classifications going over 80% YES.
~~ Recyclable
Once upon a time, in this here tube, or some such like it, I would occasionally have speaks, with a fellow a commercial airline pilot. And he would try to sell me on the wonder of planes. But, I was not buying. It was and is my position that all the planes, they should be grounded. At once. And. Forevermore. For, if humans, they want to fly, they should do so—my view—without machines. Otherwise, they have no business, none whatsoever, being up there.
But, you don’t understand, the pilot, he would say. It’s really magic, flying.
Of course it is, I’d say. But that is the province of the wonder of birds. And you just can’t have magic, in machines. To machines, magic, it is allergic. That, is just, a Law.
“What about a heart defibrillator?” one day this guy at me snapped. “Someday you might think that machine, pretty fucking magic.”
Yeah, well, okay, I admitted. Always, there are exceptions. And these. Just. Proving. The rule.
This week alone, when we were supposed to celebrate the end of the war to end all wars, the US instead threatens China, and Russia, and intends to nullify Nicaragua's election. As someone here recently wrote, Nicaragua appears to be Venezuela 2.0. The US claims Ortega arrested his challengers. Funny how that was quite acceptable when Lula was imprisoned while running against CIA favorite Bolsonaro in Brazil. The arrogance and absurdity of declaring our puppets as presidents of other countries is amazing. But perhaps more amazing is the way our colonial powers agree. Over twenty countries recognized Guido as Venezuela's president because the US told them to do so. The US stole (and is stealing) all of Venezuela's profits from their US based company Citgo, and the UK stole their gold holdings banked in London...because we don't recognize their election results despite Jimmy Carter declaring them some of the fairest elections in the world.
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso
Singapore is one of the places I have followed in the press over the years. Business and societal changes seem to happen just a little bit before they reaches the rest of the world. It is one of my methods of guessing what the future may bring and pre-planning some options.
Happy Friday everyone. Post whatever you got.
The San Diego Zoo has 5 walk-through aviaries. These photos were all taken in the Africa Rocks aviary where all the birds are from, you guessed it, Africa.
Back in 1980 the 13 series documentary Cosmos by Carl Sagan had a profound effect on myself. I anxiously awaited every week for the new episode to air and then watched it again later in the week when it aired for the second time. As soon as possible I ran out to Barnes and Noble and bought the accompanying book just missing getting a first edition by only a few days. To me this was television at its finest and would eventually lead to a decades old hobby of mine, astronomy.
In rural Pacific Northwest, we knew a lot of hunters. Some went to Central Oregon. Others went to the coast. Most ate the animals, usually Deer or Elk, they shot.
In rural France hunting is around us many times of the year. The historical tie to proud shared ownership of forests, woodlands and pastures is the freeing of hunting lands for use not by the titled but use by everyone. The hunting traditions live to this day.
