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Category Archives: history
What happened to nonviolence?
Two graphs tell some of the story. First is how often “nonviolence” and “non-violence” appeared in books until 2008, when Google quit keeping track: Second is search trends for “nonviolence” and “non-violence” since 2004, which is when Google started keeping track of … Continue reading
Posted in history, Past, Personal, Social
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On cryptocurrencies, blockchain and all that
Take a look at this chart: CryptoCurrency Market Capitalizations As Neo said, Whoa. To help me get my head fully around all that’s going on behind that surge, or mania, or whatever it is, I’ve composed a lexicon-in-process that I’m … Continue reading
Posted in Blockchain, Business, Cryptocurrencies, Distributed Ledgers, education, history, infrastructure, Internet, Links, money, News, Research, Science, Technology
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Props to Pop on Memorial Day
Thinking today, with great appreciation, about my father, Allen H. Searls, who served twice in the U.S. Army, first in the Coastal Artillery and again in the Signal Corps, during World War II. As I put it in the caption under that … Continue reading
Where the nickname came from
My given name is David. Family members still call me that. Everybody else calls me Doc. Since people often ask me where that nickname came from, and since apparently I haven’t answered it anywhere I can now find online, here’s the story. … Continue reading
Posted in advertising, Art, Blogging, Broadcasting, Business, Friends, Fun, Geography, history, North Carolina, Past, Personal, radio
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Have we passed peak phone?
I shot this picture with my phone on the subway last night, while no less absorbed in my personal rectangle than everyone else on the subway (and I do mean everyone) was with theirs. I don’t know what the other passengers were … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Culture, history, Ideas, infrastructure, Personal, Photography, privacy, problems
Tagged data, personal data, telephony
6 Comments
Saving High Mountain
I’ve long thought that the most consequential thing I’ve ever done was write a newspaper editorial that helped stop development atop the highest wooded hilltop overlooking the New York metro. The hill is called High Mountain, and it is … Continue reading
Posted in Geography, history, Journalism, News, Past, Personal, publishing, Technology
Tagged High Mountain, Journalism, New Jersey, Photography, Wayne
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Desert warfare training in live ghost towns, seen from the sky
I’ve been fascinated for years by what comes and goes at the Fort Irwin National Training Center— —in the Mojave Desert, amidst the dark and colorful Calico Mountains of California, situated in the forbidding nowhere that stretches between Barstow and … Continue reading
Posted in Aviation, Geography, Geology, history, Military, Science, Strange stuff, Travel, war
4 Comments
The Internet deserves its proper noun
The NYTimes says the Mandarins of language are demoting the Internet to a common noun. It is to be just “internet” from now on. Reasons: Thomas Kent, The A.P.’s standards editor, said the change mirrored the way the word was used in dictionaries, … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Cluetrain, Future, history, Ideas, infrastructure, Internet, problems, Technology
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Oil and Water on California’s South Coast
Oil in the water is one of the strange graces of life on Califonia’s South Coast. What we see here is a long slick of oil in the Pacific, drifting across Platform Holly, which taps into the Elwood Oil Field, … Continue reading
Posted in Aviation, education, Geography, Geology, Health, history, Personal, Photography, Strange stuff, Technology, UCSB
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A tale of two stars
(This post is reblogged from this one, posted on June 11, 2001.) The best live performance I’ve ever attended was John Lee Hooker playing St. Joseph’s AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church in Durham, North Carolina. It was around the turn of the … Continue reading
Posted in history, Obituary, Strange stuff
Tagged blues, Caddy, Healer, John Lee Hooker, Keith Richards, Story
3 Comments