Doug's Darkworld

Well, I’m back from my Sierra mountains vacation. I got back some time ago in fact. Unfortunately, due to circumstances entirely under my control, completely foreseeable, and so stupid as to beggar belief (I’ve waited decades for an opportunity to use that turn of phrase)  my vacation was a stressfest rather than a vacation. So I had to take another vacation when I returned, hence the lateness of my return to Doug’s Darkworld. I needed to de-stress and instead made my situation worse. I wonder, is there any career potential to being a stress counsellor? I could give people advice on how to make their lives more stressful! Face not properly lined? People saying you look too relaxed? Your life a tapestry of ennui due to lack of stress? No worries, Doug can set you straight! Just send me buckets of money and I can guarantee more stress in your life! Especially if you borrow the money! Is this not a cool business plan or what?

Moving right along, there are going to be some changes in Doug’s Darkworld due to the aforementioned stress, not to mention some personal health issues. I have realized that concentrating on the appocalypse unfolding around us for the past year has had a non-salubrious effect on me. Granted I still think that Georgia/Afghanistan/Iraq is the high water mark of the American Empire, and that our economy (snort) is based entirely on toilet paper money and none of this is going to end well, but there’s no reason to dwell on it. So I’m changing the focus of Doug’s Darkworld again this summer.  I will be going back to semi-random posts on history, science, and weirdness. When major events unfold like the war in Georgia or Israel’s recent operation in Gaza occur, I will of course cover them. Otherwise, I will refrain from politics until the next election cycle. Wow, it felt good just to type that.

I’m going to try and include more links to video, as the above link to Georgia’s President Saakashvili eat his own tie on live TV. For example someone sent me this link of Joshua Klein talking about how intelligent crows are. Mr Klein in fact built a vending machine for crows, and they deposit coins to get food. His thinking as that crows could be used for useful things and not just be a pest. It’s an interesting thought, it might be entirely possible to set up some sort of bird vending machines on the edges of cities, and crows would gather trash and trade it in for food pellets. Think about that, parks and streets and yards would be kept free of litter by patrolling crows. The savings on litter pick up would be enormous. And I’m not talking about trained crows, once the first few had figured it out, other crows would learn by watching, and the knowledge of how to turn trash into food would slowly spread through the crow population, as happened in England in the fifties with the Blue Tit and milk bottles. Of course there’s probably a down side. Crows would fly in people’s windows and take papers off desktops for example, that could be a problem.

In any event I’m back and Doug’s Darkworld will resume regular posting. Suggestions for posts are always appreciated, and comments are always welcome. Try to keep the personal attacks in the comments to a minimum though, I cannot and will not approve comments that include insults. Frankly, if a person can’t make their point without insulting other people, they probably don’t have much of a point. And finally, thanks to my readers for simply reading. I hope everyone is having a great summer (or winter for those who live in the antipodes.)

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

— J.R.R. Tolkien (British author and scholar, 1892-1973)

(The above image was blatantly used without permission, but since I got it from a realtor’s site and am linking to their page, I am hoping my transgression will be overlooked. Especially since I’m not profiting from the use of the photo and if anything am benefiting the commercial copyright holder’s use of the photo by linking to the fine IDG/Properties/Pete Nevin site. It’s a pic of the Doyle Inn, a fine little grocery store I patronise every time I go to Doyle, CA. And I’m claiming my use of the Tolkien poem as Fair Use under US copyright law, it’s not being used for profit and it’s use here in no way interferes with the copright holder’s commercial use of the work. And it’s the perfect bit of prose to illustrate the post. Copyright: The Tolkien Estate. And crippities, the author has been dead for more than thirty years, there’s something fishy about modern copyright law.)