electric wanderings - blog posts liked

The American national security complex has a long list of 21st century defeats to its name. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few months trying to understand some of these failures. But …

A New Narrative by Catherine Bernier

As a profession, we seem to have cast our climate concerns aside, the second it became possible to earn a quick buck peddling coal-powered NFT pixels online...

Supposedly today we have a lot of browsers to choose from - Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, etc. Having choices is a good thing, right? Nobody wants to relive the time of almost complete Internet Explorer domination again. Unfortunately our choices are significantly fewer than they seem to be at first glance, as Chrome and Safari (thanks to the iPhone) totally dominate the browser landscape in terms of usage and almost all browsers these days are built on top of Chromium, Google’s open-source browser project. Funny enough even Edge is built on top of Chromium today, despite the bitter rivalry between Google and Microsoft. What’s also funny is that Chrome and Safari control about 85% of the browser market share today, and Microsoft’s Edge commands only about 4%:

I think it can be universally agreed that the last couple of years have been a bit, well, testing. There has been much recording of the tragedies of our fellow occupants of Earth, on which I am who…

If you have to explain how to use blog you've failed. It should be self explanatory except in unusual use cases

5 weeks and 4000 miles through Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and California – Part I 2016 has been a rather weird and hectic whirlwind of jobs, travels, joggling visa days and running from the…

Instead of spending your coffee break scrolling through your social feeds, how about a lovely little website instead? We came across some fantastic ones that are just too good not to be shared. But be warned, your break might take a bit longer than intended.

Ever since I was a young boy, my heart has belonged outdoors. Camping, canoeing, hiking, accompanying my parents for a hearty volksmarsch during our time in Germany--the less time I could spend inside, the better. In fact, being kept inside was a hefty and effective punishment for me. As I got older, I began to venture out on my own, sometimes disappearing for days or weeks at a time to wander through the weald at my leisure. This was where I longed to be, far away from the cacophonous crowds of the city.In this series, I want to take you on a journey through the snowy backcountry of my home province, Manitoba, and show the world the natural beauty of the Keyhole to the West.

I have another birthday, and another bunch of unsolicited advice.    • That thing that made you weird as a kid could make you great as an adult — if you don’t lose it. • If you have any doubt at all

One my favorite pastimes is aimlessly wandering a beach looking for seashells or interesting objects washed ashore. On recent day such a walk at an Arcata, CA, beach near a jetty revealed some amaz…

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soulJohn Muir Grief is a journey, like anything else. Finding my strength, resilience, compassion, and love has been the greatest gift I could …

Memories to wash away the pain…

Jewish skullcaps Male Orthodox Jews usually wear skullcaps called kippot (singular: kippah) while they are awake, both outdoors and indoors. I’ve even met some who wear head coverings while t…

Exploring how different technologies can influence writers and writing. (Guest writers welcome — contact me if you'd like to contribute a piece.)

Cry out your want. I want my last will and testament to be filled with the people I love and to give everyone I love a weekend stay at the Hotel MacDonald with the fluffy robes and room service and the dog to pet in the lobby. I want to be unfathomable and mysterious. I want the perfect cardigan,

This morning I went outside, onto the back parking deck where the view of the sky is most unobstructed.  I took library books to the car, bu...

The payments industry in Japan is evolving rapidly. Some trends are globally relevant.

When I attended California College of the Arts there was an illustration professor who would often tell students that illustration wages hadn’t adjusted for inflation since the 1980s. He had …

As a lover of all things space I enjoy reading a wide variety of perspectives. The more different the origin, the more likely I am to learn something new! Even in articles which contain errors or e…

It was with dawning dread I realized I hadn’t camped overnight in the high Sierras since late 2015. I did attempt a family trip as recently as 2019 but we realized just before sleep time that…

One year of widowhood. I don’t have any answers.

For a time, in my teens, I would experiment with the compass from my trigonometry kit. When I had mastered some control over my power, I used it to my advantage. I’d etch cross-hatched eyes and a w…

SheIn, an e-commerce company founded in China but sells exclusively to overseas markets, is likely to eclipse Zara (Inditex), H&M Group, and Gap Inc. as the world’s largest clothing retailer as early as the second half of this year. It reportedly sold $10b worth of clothing in 2020 and $3.6b in the first quarter of this year, reaching a valuation of $46 billion. On the U.S. iOS and Android app stores, it overtook Amazon in May as the most downloaded shopping app.

About a year ago I stumbled upon this photo by adventure photographer Jonah Moose. I was immediately obsessed with not only the photo, but also the location. Photographers in the PNW (including me) have a tendency to keep locations private, because we're dealing with a lot of overcrowding of trails. So it took me a while (approximately a year) to figure out where this magical lake was located.

Aleuts, Unangan, Umnak, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, Unalaska, Dutch Harbor, Vsevidof, Okmok, Nikolski, Bering Sea, Ravn air, Pacific, USA, Russia, geyser, hot spring, Recheshnoi, whale, Fur seal, puffin

My first tryst with the continent took place in a movie theatre called Liberty Talkies. I was nine years old when my father and I went there to watch a movie titled African Safari. Back then we watched quite a few safari movies. Tarzan movies were my favorite. These movie trips were precious gifts. When I was 13, my uncle sent me a subscription of the National Geographic magazine. The images in the magazine – especially of wildlife – opened a new world. Thus, I became aware of an idea: Africa. Real, but only in an imagined way. That is, until I went to see for myself.I made my first trip to Kenya and Tanzania in 1996 with a dear college friend. It was during that trip that I understood, for the first time, the meaning of the word, “wonder.”23 years later I went to Tanzania; this time with my wife and daughter. We visited the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara National Park. Images in this gallery are from photos taken during that trip.Most people return mesmerized from their trips to Africa, wondering what took them so long to go. It was no different for me. During the Covid-19 slowdown I was fortunate to dedicate time to reading about Africa – which enhanced my lived experience and informed this gallery. This is a montage of what I saw and experienced. I hope you enjoy it.Welcome to Wonder!

Aisulu Sadykova is a woodcarver from a family of artisans in the ancient city of Turkestan, Kazakhstan. Aisulu has been creating traditional handicrafts - felt dolls, yurts, wooden camel figurines - for more than 18 years. But her main medium is wood and her woodcarving art is intermeshed with the history and identity of this city that once lay along the Great Silk Road.