East End Park, Kingwood, Texas — Images by kenne (Click on any of the tiled photos for larger view and slideshow.)
Hikers and naturalists in general often carry a small plastic bag when outdoors to pick up trash left behind by people who routinely show a disrespect for nature. Whether on the trail or along roads in our National Parks, one will frequently see trash, especially beer cans, and from my experience the beer of choice for “trash-tossers” is Bud Light. Yes, I’m aware that Bud Light is the number one selling beer in America, which doesn’t say much for the beer-taste of Americans, whether we toss our cans or not. From my outdoor experience, trash-tossers beer of choice is America’s number one selling beer — coincidence, maybe.
Recently while visiting family in Kingwood, Texas, I took the time to walk the trails in East End Park, located along the shores of Lake Houston. These photos make my case! Since Bud Light commercials are directed at men, well, you can make you own conclusions as to the gender of trash-tossers.
kenne
— from urban dictionary:
Bud Light
Pure piss in a bottle. Popular at high school parties simply because its cheap and available in bulk. However, there is actually a good side to this alcohol-injected urine. They make some of the funniest damn commercials around.
John: *Grabs last bud light* Sarah: Hey John, wanna get me a bud light? John: Um….sure, one sec. *Chugs Bud light* John: *Pisses in bottle* Sarah: Thanks! Mmmmm…Crisp!
Talking Heads Succumb To Group Thought — Image by kenne First posted November 2, 2008:
“The more things change, the more they remain the same!”
Over the past decade, we have made several trips to southern California to visit family. One of the things that routinely stood out was the volume of home construction and the skyrocketing prices. Anyone with a little bit of judgment could see that this “bubble”, like the technology bubble, had to burst – it was only a matter of time.
But, where were the experts? The information was there. The data were there. Why weren’t the conditions for an economic crisis observable by the “talking heads”? Why was something so obvious to “Mr. Sensible”?
Armed with less information, anecdotal at best, Mr. Sensible has learned to trust his intuitive instincts, making observations (and decisions) based on accumulated experiences that his mind is processing –
just at a different level. Roy Rowan writes:
“This feeling, this little whisper from deep inside your brain, may contain far more information — both facts and impressions — than you’re likely to obtain from hours of analysis.”
Most experts (talking heads) have gained their titles by accepting certain prevailing thoughts, which by its very nature takes on a form of group thought.Irving Janis pointed out in the early seventies how a group of experts could make mistakes because of being preoccupied with the own personal relevance and effectiveness. Such thought neglects intuition, which involves too much risk, the very reason experts succumb to group thought. Experts who dare may lose their titles — God forbid!
It’s important to listen to the logic of experts, but only while listening to your heart. Successful decisions come to those who dare. “Qui audet adipiscitur!”
kenne
“Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law.
If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other;
and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest.“
— Arthur Schopenhauer
A time of dangerous opportunity
A time to discard sacred cows
A time for spiritual renewal
A time of shared empathy
A time of caring
A time to create
A time to mute siren songs
A time to be “danger people.”
Fellow naturalist and blogger, Ann Green, posted the following this morning on her blog “Ann Green’s Blog” and per her request I’m sharing the post. In case you are wondering, this happens why too often.
kenne
No photographer wants credit for this
“I, Anne Green, hereby give notice that I have picked up the last diaper I’m ever going to pick up in Sabino Canyon.
Henceforth, if you feel you must leave some ‘thing’ that YOU BROUGHT INTO THE CANYON, leave your baby.
Please share this post.”
“Much of the West is now a giant tinderbox, literally ready to combust. Yet thanks to fire suppression, the consequences have been postponed for decades.
“When you look at the long record, you see fire and climate moving together over decades, over centuries, over thousands of years,” said pyrogeographer Jennifer Marlon of Yale University, who earlier this year co-authored a study of long-term fire patterns in the American West.
“Then, when you look at the last century, you see the climate getting warmer and drier, but until the last couple decades the amount of fire was really low. We’ve pushed fire in the opposite direction you’d expect from climate,” Marlon said.
“Today I am richer than I ever dreamed possible,
and it is not through my effort or achievement,
and it is not measured in wealth or possessions,
but it has come through my awakening to what has
always been true and waiting for me to discover.”
Edward Abbey begins his 1968 book, Desert Solitaire – A Season In The Wilderness with the sentence;
“This is the most beautiful place on earth.”
He continues:
“There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary.
A houseboat in Kashmir,
a view down Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn,
a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the Allegheny Mountains,
a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country,
a greasy alley near the Hoboken waterfront, or even,
possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender,
the velvety smog of Manhattan, Chicago, Paris, Tokyo, Rio or Rome —
there’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment.”
Yes, we all have that place, that place that inspires thoughts and feelings that conjure those magical experiences. For Abbey, it’s Moab, Utah, which is where he was a seasonal park ranger in the Arches National Monument and the subject of his book. But, Desert Solitaire is more than about Moab, it’s about the desert.
In recording his impressions of the desert, he tells the reader that he endeavored to be accurate,
“. . . since I believe that there is a kind of poetry, even a kind of truth, in simple fact.”
With that position, Abbey went on to convey what he called a “modest pretension” that the desert is a vast and complex world, making it very difficult for language to gather the simple facts when the facts are infinite. Since he could not get the desert into a book, he tried something different,
“. . . I tried to create a world of words in which the desert figures more as a medium than as material. Not imitation but evocation has been the goal.”
I share his goal in my photography, not to provide a copy of the original, but to create anew through the power of the observer’s imagination. It is hoped that you may find the images of my most beautiful place on earth, the Sonoran desert, pleasing to the eye. However, as Abbey cautioned, do not travel to the desert and expect to see what I have captured —
“When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you’ll see something, maybe.”
kenne
Images by kenne
“The desert, when the sun comes up…I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.”
― Tom Hanks
Insolation Controls in the Age of Anthropocene
(Understanding Global Warming)
Anthropocene newly coined term a human condition questioned by the extreme right argued as alignment of insolations maxima and minima questioning the new condition of our condition
The year was 1968, the year I was discharged from the Army and went back to college. Much has changed since then, but some things have remained the same — like the Morton Salt girl. Six girls in 54 years, now none in 45 years.
Sure, the media and artist continue to create versions of the original concept, but why has this iconic image not changed? Many have changed over the years, i.e., Pepi, Starbucks, Nike, Apple, IBM and VW — it’s the nature of marketing, isn’t it?
Just something to think about, especial if you are into design and marketing. Can we still trust Morton Salt to give us the best shake?
kenne
Morton Salt Commercial From The Mid-60’s. (So much has changed in the last 50 years!)
The invasion of Iraq began on March 19, 2003. On this Memorial Day, I share a piece I wrote in January of 2003.)
Freedom doesn’t come without a price,
an individual’s price
can vary greatly
depending on his/her
color, wealth, and power.
I served during the Viet Nam era.
On the day I was drafted,
so too were two other young men.
They are not alive today.
There are others I knew
that paid the greatest price,
which is how many of us
put a face on Viet Nam War.
For many Americans
going to war in Iraq
needs to have a face,
a face of those who have already died
from this war between bullies.*
During my duty in the Army
I had a top secret-crypto clearance.
I began to become aware
of the difference between
what citizens are told as fact
and what was the truth.
The Army told me we live and die
by international law and standards,
by the Rules of the Geneva Convention,
but we lie.
We expect others to live
by international laws,
not us.
Just because a bully in Iraq
doesn’t believe in international laws
shouldn’t mean that we lower
ourselves to the bully’s level.
We are better than that!
The lesson I have learned is that
it’s always a mistake
to believe your own lies.
Yes, Sadam is a tyrant.
However, he should be
treated as such through
the international justice system.
He should be replaced
by elected leaders,
not a regime that is ours.
Remember,
it wasn’t that long ago
that Sadam was our bully.
As the most powerful country
in the history of the world,
we have an obligation
to use our power with
constraint and with justice,
to lead by example
so that other countries
will not take unilateral action
against another country
simply for preëmptive reasons.
We are better than that!
Let’s show respect to our position
of power and greatest
by leading and supporting diplomacy
and the rule of law,
not the rule of vigilantism.
Peace.
kenne
*(note — we have been at war, with Iraq since we have
been bombing them daily for years now, which we justified by our own unilateral action, not International law,
or the UN.)
Talking Heads Succumb To Group Thought — Image by kenne
Image by kenne
Mammoth Lakes Sunrise — Image by kenne
Psychedelic Thistle — Image by kenne
Edward Abbey begins his 1968 book, Desert Solitaire – A Season In The Wilderness with the sentence;
AJ Murphy — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Existing In Absurdity — Photo-Artistry by kenne
National Geographic “Age of Man” March 2011
Morton Salt Girls
AngelusNovis by Paul Klee
Tom Toles/The Washington Post
East End Park, Kingwood, Texas — Images by kenne (Click on any of the tiled photos for larger view and slideshow.)
Hikers and naturalists in general often carry a small plastic bag when outdoors to pick up trash left behind by people who routinely show a disrespect for nature. Whether on the trail or along roads in our National Parks, one will frequently see trash, especially beer cans, and from my experience the beer of choice for “trash-tossers” is Bud Light. Yes, I’m aware that Bud Light is the number one selling beer in America, which doesn’t say much for the beer-taste of Americans, whether we toss our cans or not. From my outdoor experience, trash-tossers beer of choice is America’s number one selling beer — coincidence, maybe.
Recently while visiting family in Kingwood, Texas, I took the time to walk the trails in East End Park, located along the shores of Lake Houston. These photos make my case! Since Bud Light commercials are directed at men, well, you can make you own conclusions as to the gender of trash-tossers.
kenne
— from urban dictionary:
Bud Light
Pure piss in a bottle. Popular at high school parties simply
because its cheap and available in bulk.
However, there is actually a good side to this alcohol-injected urine.
They make some of the funniest damn commercials around.
John: *Grabs last bud light*
Sarah: Hey John, wanna get me a bud light?
John: Um….sure, one sec. *Chugs Bud light*
John: *Pisses in bottle*
Sarah: Thanks! Mmmmm…Crisp!
CONCLUSION:
I you like piss in a can
and enjoy trashing nature,
you drink Bud Light.
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