Utahredrock

Berlin +20, proud to be an American

2009-11-10T10:20:00.002-07:00

Yesterday the West celebrated one of its greatest triumphs. After 44 years of oppression, the Iron Curtain dissolved twenty years ago. The events in Berlin and throughout Eastern Europe in 1989 did not occur simply because an East German bureaucrat misspoke. No, they were the result of the strong moral position that the United States took beginning in the Truman Administration and carrying on through the early days of President Bush the First.

John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were the most colorful of the Cold Warriors. Their respective visits to Berlin in 1963 and 1987 are important mile markers of a long and brutal Cold War. Another great American effort must also be remembered. President Truman oversaw the most dramatic effort to preserve the freedom of West Berlin when he supplied the city with food and all other necessary supplies during the Berlin Blockade by the Soviets in 1948 and 1949. An entire city was kept alive by airlifting in every necessary supply to sustain life.

During the Berlin Airlift alone 71 American and British airmen lost their lives. It took courage to stand up to the Soviet bullies in the 1940s and it took commitment and vision to continue that stand for over four decades.

Americans, and other westerners whose nations supported our policy of containing communism to its 1945 borders in Europe, have much to be proud of. Yes that day in Berlin twenty years ago was a long day coming and it was no accident. It was one of the primary goals of U.S. foreign policy for almost half a century. Not only were German families split in two, but all of Eastern Europe suffered for two generations under the grip of Soviet Communism. Coming after two generations of war in the first half of the twentieth century, Eastern Europeans paid a heavy price for politics gone awry between 1914 and 1989.

All of this amounts to more than just historic facts. American efforts to contain communism in Europe represent the best of our country. In history nothing is inevitable. There are many possible outcomes and the future is impossible to predict.

Below you can see my friend Mirja Riester, who grew up near the intra-German border in West Germany, discuss the fall of the Berlin Wall:

They're back. January 20th.

2009-11-09T12:28:00.002-07:00

Don't miss new episodes of Meteorite Men with my friend's Geoffrey Notkin and Steve Arnold.

Back home in Zion

2009-11-08T21:10:00.001-07:00

After seven years of wanderings, I am back in Utah.

I arrived in late August, but tonight Jake and I returned from a week long trip to Phoenix. The main purpose of that trip was to empty our storage unit.

I don't have too many worldy possessions left after downsizing again and again over the last ten years, but I have a few. Mostly everything is in plastic bins and I am not even sure what I have at this point.

All of my stuff went from my Phoenix storage unit to my Salt Lake storage unit. It will be roughly six months before I actually unpack.

It is so good to be back in Utah and am pysched for winter and some serious skiing.

The decade with no name

2009-11-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

More on the decade that is about to end:

A decade winds down

2009-10-30T00:06:00.003-06:00

It just hit me, this decade, whatever we ended up calling it, is basically over. Just two months to go.

How the hell did that happen? Whoa.

Here come the teens. Even if it's three years until the first teen--we can call the whole decade the teens.

Here's where I've seen the new decades come in so far:

1970 Ohio
1980 Vermont
1990 Florida
2000 Montana
2010 _______ (Probably Ohio, though it seems like I need to be in at least some other state)

The buzz

2009-10-23T10:54:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the brave new world of social media

2009-10-23T09:40:00.001-06:00

Originally posted in July of 2009

Many of us have been drawn into the new world of social media. It’s been a very organic process. For most of us the first step was email in the early 1990s. With email it became easy to communicate written messages electronically, instantly, and for free--or at least with zero incremental cost. Never before was such a thing possible. People quickly got an email address and changed how they communicated with others. When the World Wide Web took off in the mid 1990s additional avenues of communications proliferated. Today, many of us use various forms of social media as part of our daily routine.

Let’s consider the term itself. After all, what is “social media?” The short answer: It is a very broad term that encompasses many different things. Another answer: "Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies."

How did you find this posting? Email, Twitter, Facebook? Are you a regular visitor to this web page? All of these are different types of social media. It's very important to emphasize that if you use email, if you're even reading this page, you are a user of social media. You need not join the Facebook massess or the Twitterers--those are just two new, and potent, applications in this new world of communications.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is social media. Wikipedia is not just an encyclopedia, it is also an online community of volunteer editors that created the largest encyclopedia in human history. Today, Wikipedia contains 13,000,000 articles in more than 260 languages. It didn’t exist ten years ago.

There are advantages and disadvantages to social media. It's currenlty getting a lot of buzz because it describes a whole new mosaic of possibilities in the realm of communications. Take some time to better understand it. Below are two sources on social media. Check them out, they will give you a better understanding of this term and its implications on how we communicate:

1. Read the Wikipedia article on social media to get a more erudite and comprehensive overview of the term. This article is the result of many Wikipedia editors collaborating from around the world. I don't present it as the ultimate definition of this new term, though I do offer it as an excellent start--one of the best I've seen. This is part of the genius of Wikipedia, it is ever changing. Wikipedia is criticized because anybody, literally anybody, can edit it, but the end result is often articles that are extremely well written.

2. Watch the video below by Greg Ensell. Greg interviews Jenn Daniels, a newly elected city council member from Gilbert, Arizona, who discusses how she used various social media outlets for her campaign. The content of the interview is well worth your time. But also consider the video itself. It is an example of how broadcasting is no longer just the province of large companies with expensive infrastructures. Anyone can make a video and post it online for anyone to see. This is a major paradigm shift from the pre-Internet world of the 20th century when communication was mostly a matter of broadcasting from one source to many. With social media, many sources can create and broadcast content of all types to many people.

Like it or not, we've entered a brave new world. Greg's video:

"Social media is online content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies."

2009-10-23T09:37:00.000-06:00

Wikimania visits the RIESTER Academy

2009-10-23T06:22:00.000-06:00

Ten things you may not know about Wikipedia.

"Know it All," The New Yorker, July 31, 2006.

"The Hive," The Atlantic Monthly, September 2006.

"Wikipedia: Exploring Fact City," The New York Times, March 28, 2009.

"Wikipedia," the current version of Wikipedia's article on itself.

Wiki-policy: What Wikipedia is not.

Wiki-policy: Ignore all rules. "If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it."

Wiki-policy: Notability.

The article on Lolo Soetoro.

An Airstreamer no more

2009-10-17T15:25:00.002-06:00

I sold the Airstream today. Read more at http://1973airstream.blogspot.com

Exploring brave new worlds

2009-09-09T10:19:00.002-06:00

One of the new images from Hubble:

NGC 6302--The Butterfly Nebula

2009-09-09T10:13:00.004-06:00

Text from NASA:

Butterfly Emerges from Stellar Demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302

This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.

What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!

A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. WFC3 was installed by NASA astronauts in May 2009, during the servicing mission to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old Hubble telescope.

NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star’s outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

The central star itself cannot be seen, because it is hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the center. The thick dust belt constricts the star’s outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.

The star’s surface temperature is estimated to be about 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy. Spectroscopic observations made with ground-based telescopes show that the gas is roughly 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is unusually hot compared to a typical planetary nebulae.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

Ted Kennedy—A mess of a man, and exhibit A of why it is good to be less judgmental, and more forgiving

2009-08-27T14:38:00.004-06:00

I was once a young Republican who had a deep seated gut feeling that Teddy Kennedy was bad for America. Over the years my views mellowed, and I believe Kennedy’s brand of liberalism also evolved.

It is interesting to consider this man. If you read the New York Times obituary (one of the longest I remember seeing) you read of someone with huge, glaring, even horrifying flaws. He was a spoiled rich boy who at best committed manslaughter and got away with it.

Yes, many of the things that most of us average folk struggle to achieve were never part of Teddy Kennedy’s world. He never had to worry about paying rent, or a mortgage.

I am always fascinated by people like him who despite being given everything also have it in their DNA to give back. Regardless of what you think of his politics, you have to admit he did all he could, given his world view, to fight for a better society.

I’ve contemplated and studied the lives of leaders like Ted Kennedy, Ted Stevens of Alaska, and Hillary Clinton for years. Stevens was convicted and then had his conviction overturned, for allegedly petty crimes related to home improvements—nothing compared to Kennedy’s actions that led to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Yet I firmly believe, no, I know from personally meeting and seeing both of these men in action, that their work in the U.S. Senate made our country a better place. It is popular to hate politicians and to tear them down, yet it takes a special perseverance to survive such an onslaught of vitriol. Hillary Clinton’s ability to persevere is the main reason why I went from being a Hillary hater to a Hillary lover. Wow, she is tough—and yes, she is flawed.

Our governmental institutions need men and women like Kennedy, Stevens, and Clinton. All of these people have huge flaws. There are reasons to hate any or all of them, to demand that they leave public life, to pine for new faces. Yet those new faces will be just as human as these three.

What delusion do we live under to think that anyone is above the flaws of being human?

Richland County, Ohio

2009-07-18T22:15:00.001-06:00

The next few posts are from my recent visit to my hometown in Ohio.

Fresh hay at Sandstone Farm.

Posing on the tractor at Sandstone Farm

2009-07-18T21:51:00.005-06:00

Amish country

2009-07-18T15:41:00.003-06:00

The area includes many Amish and Mennonites. Both are rooted in 19th century ways (some more so than others). The two groups don't mix.

Western saddle, restored by an Ohio Amish craftsman

2009-07-18T15:16:00.007-06:00

Meanwhile, back at Sandstone Farm . . .

2009-07-18T09:24:00.023-06:00

My friend Francis has been working hard since I last wrote about her cool Ohio farm. While she has not yet made it back in to the main farm house she is inching closer. For nearly two years now she has been living in her cabin while plotting, planning, and working to finance her move in to the old farm house on her property.

This is a monumental project and it has been her dream for many years. It is a labor of love.

This month some additional restoration work is scheduled to begin on the main house and she hopes to move in this fall--an ambitious goal. She wants to have running water in the house along with other bathroom facilities. There is no running water on the farm. She showers daily, but it involves a drive of more than ten miles.

Other than an aborted attempt to dwell in the neglected house nine years ago, it has not had people living in it for decades. It was originally built in 1849. The stone construction is unusual for a farm house in this part of Ohio. Her top priorities, in addition to running water, are to seal the house up again with windows, and rebuild a collapsed wall.

The roof was replaced a few years ago.

The main house.

The cabin. A.k.a. the cottage or yard barn.

Icons

2009-06-25T21:04:00.013-06:00

Photographed at the White House, 1984. From the National Archives.

Consider this photo--here is Michael Jackson at age 26. Look at his outfit. It's both ridiculous and spectacular. He is at the White House with the President of the United States. It is arguably the power center of the world. Reagan understood how to communicate with the masses, just as Jackson did. There is a natural symbiosis between Reagan, the politician in an election year, and Jackson, the pop star. Jackson's confidence and sheer gall are something to behold. While still a young man, Jackson was already a seasoned veteran with two decades of experience in show business at the time of this photo. Both of these men knew what they were doing. What unique men they were--icons of their time.

Michael Jackson

2009-06-25T21:02:00.003-06:00

I saw a posting on Facebook, Michael Jackson was dead. Was it a rumor? Different news organizations were reporting different things. About an hour later it was confirmed, he was gone.

My first reaction was muted—he hasn’t looked so great in years. He had become very hard to like. This was big news, but not necessarily surprising. Michael was a tortured man, unable to fit in. With his death though I was left with his legacy: the music and performances that he left behind in recordings.

Michael Jackson, part of the soundtrack of our lives, an icon.

I thought of “Thriller," then watched the full 13 minute video on You Tube.

Wow. He could dance!

It was the end of the day so I took Jake to the beach. I have the Internet but no broadcast TV or radio in the Airstream. In my truck I listened to reports from CNN and NPR. A local San Diego station was playing a tribute series of his songs.

I found myself surprisingly moved by his music. Here was a guy I hadn’t thought much about in years. When I had, the thoughts were of pity and disgust. Yet he was so talented, so much bigger than life. At his best he represented the best of life: passionate, driven, purposeful.

Michael Jackson, dead at 50.

What a song

2009-06-25T21:00:00.000-06:00

D-Day +65

2009-06-06T21:40:00.007-06:00

Members of an American landing party lend helping hands to other members of their organization whose landing craft was sunk by enemy action off the coast of France. These survivors reached Omaha Beach by using a life raft.

-Photo by Weintraub, 6 June 1944

"What we must not forget is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century."
-Barack Obama, 6 June 2009

Brendan Heath of One Earth Recycling

2009-05-29T12:37:00.002-06:00

A recycling innovator, Brendan Heath manages an upscale recyling kiosk at the Torrey Hills Center in Del Mar, California. Heath is taking a stand for less waste at our landfills.

Windmills: The sentries of San Diego County

2009-05-23T22:36:00.010-06:00

These 21st century sentries stand guard in the mountains above San Diego greeting travelers from the East. Our culture demands energy--driving the economy, and delivering the comforts of contemporary living. Clean energy from wind, solar, and other non-traditional sources is an important alternative to carbon generating coal-powered electricity plants. Coal power is currently the number one source of electricity in the U.S.

Reducing my carbon footprint

2009-05-23T22:28:00.004-06:00

My restored 1973 Airstream--home for over two years now. Living in a space with less than 200 square feet requires far less energy to heat and cool. The tiny space requires less cleaning materials and demands the accumulation of less stuff. The Airstream also took less materials to build than a traditional home. Re-using an older trailer cut down on the demand for new materials. My Dodge diesel truck gets about the same mileage as my previous car, a Subaru, and I drive about the same number of miles as I did when living a more traditional life--though my goal is to drive even less.