@johncoate āI was struck last night on how orange the sun was near sunset last night, and remembered the fires. Iām on the tail of the plume shown on the windy.com aerosol visualization.
I read this morning that some of the smoke made it all the way over to Europeā¦
Luckily for me I have the ability to move around the state to get myself into better air. And I have room air filters. That is not the norm at all. Also, in case you have not seen one, here is a photo of farm workers out there keeping us fed at great risk to their own health.
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I know of several cases like that where my friends and my cousin got it but none in their households were positive or had any symptoms.
Iāve started reading Imperium, a historical fiction biography of Cicero. Iām really enjoying it. Cicero just arrived in Messina to dig up evidence for a corruption case he handled early on in his career. Looking forward to how this will develop!
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Reading Huxley again. Seems he came to the same conclusions regarding human perception as some more modern researchers like Beau Lotto in his book āDeviate: The Science of seeing differentlyā.
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And so there is now war in my neighborhood?
I was just saying how people not wearing masks ware making me feel unsafe and a little hopeless for the future of us allā¦ well, maybe I spoke too soon. There are always worse reminders.
I just hope it doesnāt escalate to the point of having to grab that bug-out-bag sitting in our living room. It probably wonāt, as I said many times before in similar situations (like when we were threatened with nuclear terrorism for example?), but I can only hope that this time wonāt be different.
Interesting times.
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Whoa. Good luck with that.
Meanwhile out here a new big fire and again large scale evacuations.
Thanks. Wish you luck too with the fires.
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"By 4:30 a.m., a stretch of Highway 12 between Los Alamos Road and Oakmont Drive has transformed into an ember-strewn moonscape. The husks of vanquished trees formed clusters on both sides of the highway.
Homes along the east side of this road that connects Santa Rosa to the wine-rich Sonoma Valley were decimated." - local news this morning
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Here is some encouraging news about plastic-eating bacteria. But if this can be produced in large quantities it begs the question right away, will it be open source or a patent where the price gets set by controlling the supply?
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This looks really nice! Have you finished it yet?
.Yes, I finished the first book and moved onto the second. Still a page-turner, or rather a minute-turner as Iām listening to the audiobook version. Itās really great. Iām sucker for Roman history, but above all this is a terrific political thriller.
Do you know Hardcore History? Not a podcast person myself, but talk about a minute-turnerā¦
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Indeed, Iāve listened to every minute of every episode of Hardcore History. I can also recommend this podcast for Roman history in particular:
Wow, I had not made you for such a history buff. Kudos! 
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@alberto, this is a good summary of why Robert Harris, formerly a political journalist, is such an interesting read.
Perhaps I could write a novel about politics that was universal, that would mean as much to someone living in Germany, or Italy, or England or America or anywhere in the world, because there are certain laws of politics that are universal and the Romans established much of our language and much of what we think about politics.
Iām not sure that Imperium actually achieves any such universality, but the ambition is there. This particular trilogy of course sets out to detail the events that led to the fall of the republic, at the hand of populists non the less. It pits Cicero as a figure that is pulled between his own hunger for power and his knowledge in that much of the damage that is being done to the republic through the political battles he is participates in can never be undone. Itās a sort of picture of a political system at the end of its life, just as the Empire is about to take its place.
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Today is the 50th anniversary of the bus caravan that went on the start The Farm. I started with one of the buses at age 19 and stayed with the group until I was 32. This is a picture of the caravan leaving on the trip, Oct 12, 1970. The scene is the Great Highway that runs along the western beach in San Francisco. We had been meeting as a group in former roller skating rink converted into a rock and roll / meeting hall that was run by the legendary Family Dog who also ran the Avalon Ballroom. These were seminal locations if youāre into a certain music history. But we had our meetings there every Monday Night for about a year. We had been on Haight Street before that. About 2000 people attended the meetings, and this night about 200 hopped in their buses and headed north, only to be busted by the police at the Oregon border. And so it beganā¦
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I confess that my little group and I had to go back to our bus and finish fixing it before we could leave. Soon enough we did leave. But that night we watched them drive off. A sight that likely wonāt ever be repeated. Oh my what idealists we were.
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