On May 28th I tried my second attempt at Milky Way photography. I took these pictures of Mt. Hood from Laurence Lake. Here’s a bonus picture that I took of the Columbia River. If you are curious how to take such a photo, read on. Preparation The hardest part of photographing the Milky Way is preparation. Apart from the equipment, you need three things: Choosing…
Yesterday I read this article in the Atlantic by David Brooks describing why half of the country not only tolerates Trump (and what he is doing), but actually see him as heroic and a good person. The article relies heavily on the thoughts of the late moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. I am not qualified to refute these men (who are both much smarter than I),…
A former co-worker (and friend) recently had a family tragedy that left his partner in the ICU for several weeks and a young daughter and an infant to care for all by himself. Two former co-workers each spent a week in Tucson helping out, so I was happy to take my own two-week turn. While the vast majority of my time was spent caring for…
Humans are tribal creatures and we are all members of various “tribes”. I found this series of essays on the topic to be very enlightening. Tribalism is not inherently bad Tribalism is a double edge sword. I will describe all of the pitfalls of tribalism later, but first I want to stress that tribalism can be a net good that brings out the best parts…
Tribalism Humans are tribal and most of us belong to one or more tribes. Historically, these tribes were heavily influenced by family, location, and religion, and there often were not a lot of options for choosing your own tribe (especially in smaller villages with little diversity). Today, we have a lot more options for choosing our own tribes. Examples of modern tribes include: Family, Friends,…
In 1976 I bought The Dark Side of the Moon album, played it to death, and decided that Pink Floyd was my favorite group of all time. Almost 50 years later, that hasn’t changed. But at the time, I didn’t think too much of the songs The Big Gig in the Sky and Us and Them (they were the songs I had to endure to…
5 Stars, would recommend Harmony Road Retreats organizes weekend retreats for members of the LDS/Mormon community who are on a faith journey. Their mission is to create compassionate settings where those experiencing faith challenges can heal, learn, and grow. They were fully supportive and made no attempt to steer our journeys in any specific direction (other than healing). I attended a retreat spanning April 11…
We all have beliefs, and most of us are pretty sure that our beliefs are correct (and that any belief others have that differs from mine is wrong). Beliefs are energy-saving shortcuts that allow us to get to the truth more quickly. We take the input, filter out the parts that we want to ignore, make some simple inferences based on our beliefs, and voilà…
On Jan 28, 2025 I awoke to an email stating that Nuna (the company that I worked for) was dropping their core business and that I was laid off. I was neither surprised nor upset. The severance package included 2 months paid cobra and a lump sum payment covering 2 months salary. I figured that I’d spend a few days relaxing, and then catch up…
Many people, churches, and religions take a negative stance on transgenderism. This post is not going to argue why I think that they are wrong, but rather, I want to point out that the LDS/Mormon stance is uniquely inconsistent with their other teachings (in ways that probably don’t apply to most other religions). Many religions teach that there is a difference between a soul and…
