Killings like Columbine, Las Vegas, and Sandy Hook. I’m wondering what could be done to impede them. I’m not necessarily an advocate for gun control. It might be a good idea. It might not. I don’t know. I am however, an advocate for a reduction in mass killings. The issue of gun control has become so polarized that in any discussion, we immediately go to opposite corners and demand or resist political solutions. That’s clearly not going to get us to any consensus. I wonder though, if we were able to step away from debating gun control, and just ask if we have any semblance of agreement, as a people, that large scale violence, and mass killings are a problem, if we could come to any agreement; not agreement on a solution, just agreement that we have a problem. That would be telling. If we were to agree that mass killings are a problem, could we then agree that we should look for a solution to the problem? If we could achieve that, we would need a most logical, least political, way to approach it; a way that would not start out with predetermined positions, a way that would not immediately offend gun control opponents or proponents, just a search for a logical solution. This isn’t a problem that can be solved by one person or one idea. A committee could work on it though; a nonpartisan committee to study the problem of mass violence and mass killings. It would have to be nonpartisan, not bipartisan. Bipartisan would suggest opposing factions right off the bat and likely go nowhere. A responsible group of people, not beholden to political parties, could study the problem, identify the factors involved, imagine solutions, consider what other populations have tried in an effort to curb their problems, evaluate their successes and failures, and make recommendations about possible solutions in our country. The recommendations might include restrictions on the availability of guns or they might not. There might be a greater emphasis on education, counseling, or self-defense. The recommendations might include more guns rather than less! Whatever the results, we could then have our conversation about mass violence based on observable facts and experience, not speculation, hyperbole, or political interests. That’s my fantasy. Of course, my fantasy study has probably already been done a hundred times. What sets us apart in the United States is what I allude to in the second paragraph. We don’t agree we have a problem. How can we solve a problem that doesn’t even exist?
Physics
We’ve overcome a fundamental law of physics. We called a guy out to look at our Hydrohot system in the bus. Hydrohot is the thing that provides all the heat and hot water. It had been misbehaving intermittently, which, according to a fundamental law of physics, is an absolute guarantee that it won’t misbehave while the repairman is present. After taking everything apart, cleaning and realigning, and putting it back together, he declared that there wasn’t really anything wrong to fix, it probably just needed the maintenance he just performed. As he was walking away though, Hydrohot made an inappropriate sound which provided enough information to send him in a particular direction and he ended up determining that there was a photosensor that needed replacing. All the hot water and hot air we’ve needed since. (We don’t really need hot water and hot air in the bus right now because we’re in the house, but it’s nice to know it’ll be there when next we need it.) My conclusion? We just beat physics!
Spanish
We’re so close to our southern border that Spanish is a more common language than English. Billboards are not always bilingual; sometimes they’re only in Spanish. The population of our county is 90% Hispanic. It seems silly to live here and not speak Spanish. Studying languages other than English hasn’t gone well for me in the past though. I studied French for two years in high school and pretty much nothing stuck. (Although “studied” might be an overstatement. I attended classes.) I started a German class once in college, but quickly figured out that I needed to drop German and focus on all my other classes, or drop all my other classes and focus on German. I moved on with no foreign language. We’ve got Rosetta Stone and Babbel for Spanish on the computer. I’ve looked at them both off and on for the last year or two, always meaning to do more. I’m still not very good at coming up with words on my own now, but I’ve gotten better at recognizing written language. I can decipher most billboards and at least have an idea what they’re about. The current problem is consistency. I look at the language programs when I have time, then I get busy and forget. Rosetta Stone and Babbel are both based on spaced repetition. I’m a great fan of spaced repetition; it served me well in college, so I think I’ll take another stab at a foreign language; although since Spanish is the predominant language here it hardly seems foreign. I don’t want to stop everything else and just study a language, so I’ve decided to do at least *some* Spanish on the computer every day for a year and see how far that gets me. We’ll see if language learning programs and consistency can overpower my lack of aptitude. And as a bonus, there won’t be any shortage of people to practice on here.
This is not a cumulus cloud
It’s a smoke cloud from a sugar cane field.
When it’s time to harvest a patch of cane, they start by burning it. That gets rid of the unproductive vegetation, and gives them a lot less mass to sort through to get to the sugar-laden stalks. It just takes a few hours for a patch of cane to burn, then the sky clears, and the workers go on with the harvest. Plants
Some of our outside plants thrived in the cold wet weather we’ve had for the last few weeks.
But after the freeze, some of them not so much…
But after the freeze, some of them not so much…