https://mdpaths.com/rrr/ Welcome! You've reached the feed for the online journal of Richard Rathe. BLIS (BLog It Simple) v0.1 https://mdpaths.com/rrr/blis_media/richard-rathe.jpg https://mdpaths.com/rrr/ https://richard.mdpaths.com/travel/badlands/index.html 1771694237 My brother-in-law Rick flew out from Colorado so we could go on a road trip together across South Dakota and beyond. We entered the Park via the Northeast Entrance (extreme right on map) and spent most of our day slowly moving west, stopping frequently--sometimes to take photos, sometimes due to bison migrating across the road. We ended up at the Sage Creek primitive camping area (upper left). https://richard.mdpaths.com/commentary/no_kings_3_trump_protest/index.html 1774748545 Joined my community to protest the Trump administration. Larger crowd than No Kings 2 back in October. Amazing how much has changed since then: the Demolition of the East Wing of the Whitehouse, the invasion of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the public execution of Renee Good & Alex Pretti, the Kidnapping of the President of Venezuela, the Epstein cover-up, starting an Illegal, Senseless War with Iran. Airlines are shutting down because TSA workers have been unpaid for a month. Gas is headed for $5 a gallon. And those are just some of the highlights. https://richard.mdpaths.com/projects/bread_baking/index.html 1774748481 I've been a novice bread baker over the years, specifically breads leavened with yeast. I've made bagels and pizza crusts from scratch. I have a pizza stone in my oven and a wooden peel for that purpose. My last big endeavor was using my bread machine to make no knead bread (based on the famous NY Times recipe) with some success. All of this pales by comparison with the Five Minute approach outlined in the book discussed here. https://richard.mdpaths.com/travel/everglades/everglades_2026/index.html 1774748421 This was my 30th trip to the Everglades--different from all the others in several respects. First I was trying out new equipment (a sit-inside folding kayak). Second, I planned to just camp on a desert island, read, and take it easy. Third, I left from the Smallwood Store on Chokoloskee Island because the actual Ranger Station was closed for long-awaited hurricane repairs. I was also alone as there were no takers to join me this year. https://richard.mdpaths.com/commentary/rfk_food_pyramid/index.html 1774654084 The history of the food pyramid is complicated (see my analysis from 2004). There hasn't been an official one for maybe twenty years. I grew up with it and I think it is a sound idea, but very political with respect to what foods go where. It may be a coincidence, but anyone who is familiar with the old pyramid will recognize this one as an inverted echo. There are many other ways to lay out these ideas graphically, the choice of an inverted triangle is not subtle. I think it's propaganda for the following reasons: https://richard.mdpaths.com/commentary/no_kings_1_trump_protest/index.html 1774617113 Visiting family and friends in Sacramento California for my third protest against Trump. We had a nationwide No Kings! event to counter Trump's birthday parade in DC. The final estimates were 4-6 million of us spread over 2000 events. Compared with The Orange Man's quarter mil. https://richard.mdpaths.com/nature/plants/cellon_oak/index.html 1748310321 The Cellon Oak Park is located three miles south of La Crosse off highway 121 in rural Alachua County. For years I’ve driven the highways nearby and never knew this gem was there. The tree is magnificent in person. Well worth a trip! https://richard.mdpaths.com/travel/apostle_islands/stockton_island/index.html 1767889841 We made an amphibious landing to offload our gear and then moored the boat about a mile away at the pier. I pitched my hammock tent right on the beach between mature white and red pines. The level of Lake Superior had recently gone down so there was a more normal amount of beach exposed. https://richard.mdpaths.com/travel/apostle_islands/lake_superior_sea_caves/index.html 1767549659 Over the past eight years I’ve walked along the Lakeshore Trail to admire the Cliffs and Sea Caves from above. https://richard.mdpaths.com/projects/action_journaling/aj-tasks-projects.html 1656757761 AJ focuses on Action Items defined as discrete activities that can be performed, decided, or otherwise resolved (aka a todo list). This is the lowest level of organization--a shopping list for example. The higher level Task is to go shopping. The shopping list is an aid to complete this task. If you are planning a party with food and guests you must complete several tasks to ensure a successful event. Let's call this top level outcome a Project. As an outline it might appear something like this: https://richard.mdpaths.com/commentary/deception_obfuscation_misdirection/index.html 1769211602 Most are familiar with the concept of FUD--short for Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt. It summarizes a strategy often used in marketing and political propaganda. Its effects are pernicious, divisive and lead to exploitation. Examples abound. Fear is a strong motivator! To resist FUD one must understand how it is practiced using the principles of Deception, Obfuscation and Misdirection. https://richard.mdpaths.com/books/edward_tufte/index.html 1595146260 Just back from attending this short course by the master of intelligent design himself Edward Tufte. It was well worth the time and effort! I'd recommend it to anyone who prepares or presents information with a computer (ie, just about everyone!). His insights are numerous and often challenge conventional wisdom. His bottom line is to enhance communication by increasing the dimensionality and resolution of data. The course included copies of all four of his major books, highlighting the most recent, Beautiful Evidence. The photo shows his discussion of Powerpoint's role in the Columbia disaster, which I reviewed in 2005 and is included in Beautiful Evidence. https://richard.mdpaths.com/nature/birds/sweetwater_wetlands_2026/index.html 1770575726 Photos from our recent visit to Sweetwater Wetlands Park. Not sure I've been there in January before. There were the usual denizens and one surprise (Roseate Spoonbills). It was a bright shiny day and it warmed up quickly. https://richard.mdpaths.com/camping/tents/trekker_tent_1v_review/index.html 1748309231 This One Person Tent from River Country Products is a clever hybrid of single and double layer designs. The head of the tent has generous mesh panels for ventilation. The foot is completely enclosed in waterproofed nylon, allowing the rainfly to be much smaller (saving weight and volume). This is a unique design I have not seen elsewhere. https://richard.mdpaths.com/books/desert_solitaire/index.html 1767634502 I had the good fortune to pick up this paperback copy of Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey for reading material on my Recent Everglades Trip. It is an excellent book for both the stories and the perspective on our National Park System (of which the Everglades is a part). With all the tent time I read most of it by the end of the trip. https://richard.mdpaths.com/medicine/covid19_pandemic/index.html 1749362156 I've annotated this NY Times graphic, rounding the estimates for COVID19 (aka the 2019 novel coronavirus) to 2% mortality and 2 people infected for every one who has the disease. What this suggests is the infection rate will be similar to a bad cold season, but unlike the common cold, a significant number of people will die of the disease. https://richard.mdpaths.com/nature/spacejunk/index.html 1763430183 I was out walking at dawn today and saw this slow motion display. I could not tell if it was a plane with lights shining forward or something else. It turns out to be rocket or satellite debris falling back to Earth (aka Spacejunk). https://richard.mdpaths.com/travel/bwca/bwca_2011/index.html 1318259460 Just back from a challenging trip to the BWCA with my friend Ross. We had intended to start on the Sawbill Trail, but were told to evacuate just as we got to the entry point due to the rapidly expanding Pagami Creek Fire. (Satellite photos show this plume forming in less than two hours!) https://richard.mdpaths.com/nature/birds/amelia_island/index.html 1450227631 I was the trailing spouse for a meeting on Amelia Island. I spent most of a morning taking these photos of the local birds--including some spectacular flying by a pair of Ospreys! Right at the limit of my equipment. https://richard.mdpaths.com/travel/hall_creek_2012/index.html 1770253111 My colleague Carlos and I took a quick overnight trip to Cedar Key and the primitive campsite at Hall Creek. We put in at “Bridge #4” at low tide and paddled through some very shallow water for the first hour or so. Once out in the Gulf of Mexico I had a chance to try out my new sail. https://richard.mdpaths.com/books/bookhouse/fireless_cookbook_1919/index.html 1769731407 When I first saw this book I thought it was about making meals for a camping trip. It turned out to be much more interesting. Cooking with Insulation is a mostly forgotten technique with great potential. (The author knew this over one hundred years ago!) The concept is very simple: after heating food to the desired temperature, hang on to that heat and make it do some work!