Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, Thoughts on August 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“We need to remember that we’ve all got our blind spots and contradictions and prejudices; and that if we want to win over those who aren’t yet ready to support our candidate, we need to listen to their concerns – and maybe learn something in the process.”
— Barack Obama
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, science, Thoughts on August 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Here’s an interesting puzzle: How Do You Send a Warning 1,000 Years into the Future? – Now I Know
Think back to what the Earth was like a thousand years ago — the year 1,015. Almost everything would be foreign to modern eyes and ears — even the language would be incomprehensible. For all intents and purposes, humanity from a millennium ago may as well be an alien species (culturally, at least) with similar DNA, which simply happens to have lived on the same planet we do now.
How do we communicate with people so far removed from our own language, culture, and assumptions? It’s a great question, whether you’re thinking about the safest approach to nuclear waste disposal or contacting aliens.
In order to keep the people of the future safe from the radioactive goop created today, we need a way to tell them to watch out. And more likely than not, very few aspects of today’s society will be around to do that. Even a sign warning travelers of potential dangers would be insufficient — who among us could translate runes from the Middle Ages?
(My mom, that’s who, but point taken.)
What particularly interests me about these proposed solutions (an Atomic Priesthood dedicated to perpetuating knowledge through myth? color-changing cats?!) is that they seem to have skipped over the most obvious approach. How to conjure the fear of death, to warn people away, and to alert the future not to what is there, but what will happen if it is disturbed?*
This is a plague panel from the early 17th century. If you saw this on a house, would you go in or turn and run the other way?
In the end, the U.S. Department of Energy plan opted to go with warning signs in multiple languages illustrated with images of people in pain. Still, I wondered, what’s wrong with the classics?
Another odd writer thought, brought to you by an odd writer.
* Also, the real problem seems to be the gap between exposure and untimely demise. If you break into a tomb and die immediately, that sends a pretty strong message. And no one has to tell people not to build on an active lava flow, but a peaceful-looking mountain with fertile soil close to the bustling port of Naples and the dynamic town of Pompeii (circa 78 AD)? What’s not to like?
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, creativity, inspiration, persistence, Thoughts on August 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”
— Earl Nightingale
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, summer, Thoughts on August 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, history, internet, spies, Writers on August 14, 2024| 2 Comments »
Writers are known for their weird web histories, and I am no exception. Today, I’ll highlight just one of the many oddities I have come across lately. In case you are a writer. Or are the curious sort.
The official CIA manual of trickery and deception
The manuals reprinted in this work represent the only known complete copy of Mulholland’s instructions for CIA officers on the magician’s art of deception and secret communications written to counter Soviet mind-control and interrogation techniques
I found the reference after reading this newsletter, featuring a little magic and some talking shoelaces.
These Shoes Are Made for Talking – Now I Know
So in 1953, according to the BBC, the CIA hired a man named John Mulholland to help, paying him $3,000 (the equivalent of $35,000 today) to write the first-ever “CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception.” Mulholland, though, wasn’t a spy — he was a magician. The manual outlined lots of different ways CIA agents could use the principles of illusionists to help them survive in the field and advance their goals.
I wondered, was the book still available? And lo, it was!*
* Free to read with login.
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Posted in Entertainment, Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, cool stuff, history, inspiration, Olympics2024, sport, Thoughts, travel on August 6, 2024| 2 Comments »
The modern Olympic Games began in 1896, but where did they come from? What were the original Olympics like? If you’re interested in the historic details that shaped our current Games, this article gets into all the naked, nitty gritty details.
The origin of the Olympic Games
For twelve centuries, the sacred Games in Olympia were a spectacle of blood, sweat, and glory. These ancient contests, held in honor of the gods, captivated spectators with displays of strength, endurance, and skill. Today, the modern Olympics carry forward this legacy, uniting athletes from all over the world.
And if you have a chance to visit the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, I recommend!
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, #TeamCanada, inspiration, Olympics2024, sport, Thoughts on August 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Like so many of you, we’re watching the Olympics. The athleticism and spirit on display are inspirational, and it’s hard to imagine what the pressure must be like for the Olympians. There have been thrilling highs and painful lows.
One of the lows was Damien Warner withdrawing from the decathlon after missing all three tries at the pole vault. Heartbreaking. He’s so good but just didn’t have it on the field for that particular round.
Now, I know very little about the decathlon. (It’s really hard! Jim Thorpe amazed the world with his win in 1912! Warner won gold last time out! Aaaand, that’s about it.) In trying to make sense of Warner’s strategy, I can only guess that he started with as high a pole vaulting target as he did because he wanted to save his strength for other challenging events. (Maybe that’s not the case, but go with me here.)
What lessons would I take from this loss? That even the best can have bad days. That it’s usually a good idea to give it your all, every time. And that it pays to focus on the task in front of you.
All week, we’ve been seeing Olympic ads featuring Warner, showing his son how to compete with flair. An important lesson, to be sure, but this experience will allow him to show him, and all of us, something equally important: how to gracefully cope with loss and come back stronger.
* In a mostly unrelated but still fun note, I am (counts on fingers) three degrees of separation away from an Olympian who is in Paris right now!
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, good things happen too, inspiration, Thoughts on August 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »
“Claim your space. Draw a circle of light around it. Push back against the dark. Don’t just survive. Celebrate.”
― Charles Frazier
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, books, Fiction, gnomes, kindness, Thoughts, whimsy on August 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Need a quick pick-me-up? Here you go:
Mischief reigns in a small Canada community after a kidnapping left a man’s garden vacant of the ten ceramic garden gnomes that resided there.
(Don’t worry, there’s a happy ending.)
I’ve had a soft spot for gnomes ever since my parents gave me a copy of this classic: Gnomes by Wil Huygenn (Rien Poortvliet, ill.)
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Most of my childhood books went by the wayside over the years, but I’ve slowly built my library back up with replicas of my favorites. I’m looking at a new copy of Gnomes on my bookshelf right now.
“Those who shun the whimsy of things will experience rigor mortis before death.”
― Tom Robbins
May you never lose your childhood delights.
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2024, climate change, tools on July 31, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Aaaaaand, it’s back. Smoke from fires out west is making its way to us here on the East Coast. From the archives, let me again share this handy map with smoke forecasts.
Because, well, you know. We’re probably going to need it again.
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