You're at: https://57296.neocities.org/summaries.html
(last worked on: October 23rd, 2021)
"Executive" Summaries
(Well: more like some comments.)
3D (stereo): A celebration and how-to of 3-D imaging --print pair formats with apt versos in particular.
9/11: Some day, we have to admit to ourselves what actually occurred on September 11th, 2001. Perhaps there's too much on our nation's plate to do so in the immediate future. Perhaps it can't be done by those for whom 9/11 is in living memory. (Just too damned embarrassing to admit of not seeing the obvious.)
A better abacus: Heaven fore fend imposing changes upon what our fingers know how to use (the QWERTY keyboard, the standard piano keyboard, the 1+4 abacus, or the 2+5) --but: let's consider giving newbies a break from chains of the past.
A better mouse trap: Life --all life, is such a struggle, --at last exhausted and defeated. Let's catch these little guys, but let them live another day.
Abortions: As policies favoring family planning go up, abortions go way down. It's that simple.
Amateur Telescope Making: Paying attention to and thinking about a spot in the night sky --perhaps with a modest telescope --alone or in co-operation with others --is certainly enjoyable and might even yield original results. Considering investment, convenience, and optimizing free time, The ideal amateur instrument has long been and remains a longer focus, 6 inch aperture Newtonian --used in one's own "back yard". Here's how (I did it).
Amazon.com: There was a period --a few years back now, when it wasn't clear (to me), what the shipping was going to be for my order --and I got surprised a couple times. It seemed (to me) that unless I sent Mr. Bezos an annual welfare check, I couldn't count on "Free Shipping" being free shipping, no matter how much merchandise I ordered. Recently, I read a clear statement of Amazon's "free shipping" policy and decided to open another account --but: Amazon now uses cell phone texting for 2-step security. I have a flip phone that requires the "SMS" system for my responses --which is tough enough to use just to re-up my (Tracfone) minutes and calendar time (and which is no longer simply displayed on the little screen). So now I've got a new account --which I don't use.
Astronomy: (Amateur Telescope Making again.)
Bathtubs (killer bathtubs!): Gotta rethink this bathing business. Tubs are the damndest things for old folks. Expensive, slow fill, slow drain, trapped inside "walk-ins" are a poor solution --and showers just don't get it.
Beans!: This page started with our bread recipe --and expanded to a gourmet delight --you just gotta see it all! :-)
Being poor: In this day and age, you'd think I wouldn't have to explain how-to-be-poor. (Sheesh!)
Bikes-n-Trikes: Why is it easier to walk a bike up a hill? Why can't we be more like Holland?
Bird feeder: Our feeder goes a long way toward solving the problems of predator birds, cats and hungry squirrels.
Body Mass Index: Somewhat like the "wind chill index" and daylight saving time, BMI got authoritatively foisted on us and we're culturally stuck on it. Even though it's illogical, it might make some sense if it's assumed that our bodies, tall and short, are supported by about the same operating system/s.
(cheap old) Books and Movies: They're out there now --so scoop 'em up!
Bubbles --giant: This page drew more (nice) responses than all of the others combined.
Celestial Vault (astronomy): (Amateur Telescope Making again.)
Chromebooks: Get one of these $200 laptops for email and to safely ply the web. Use an old off-line PC for your applications/projects and print-outs.
Clothes dryer alternative: I got very little traction on this cheap innovation, but the appliance industry is doing well with $1000-plus versions.
Clouds: Past cultures have based religious practices and their timing on the Sun, Moon, planets and stars --but the biggest, by turns the most beautiful and terrifying things in and from the sky are clouds. Why, then, are they so politically and religiously neutral?
Coffee: Just use a quarter cup of Folgers "medium roast", good well water ("EartH2O" here) in a Mr. Coffee, plenty of sugar and milk. You'll be okay.
Computers: (See the Chromebooks page.)
Communes and intentional living: The highest, perhaps the most difficult calling, is social design. "What is life for?"
Cook stoves/Ranges: They're either the second, or THE most dangerous feature of the home --especially if run with gas.
Daylight Saving Time: DST has been a societal intelligence test. So far, we've failed it (except for AZ and HI).
Democracy: If we're not smart enough to get rid of DST, how the hell can we sail this ship of state through politically charged waters?
Dentistry: Update: it's been 2 years with no teeth and I'm doing fine, but I wish Subway would dice their onions
Desktop printers: It won't fully install off-line (onto an XP o/s computer), but I had to tell the world how happy I've been with my Brother J985DW.
Dog & cat fleas: Buying flea medicine is like paying rent for your own dog. They charge the same for big dogs as little ones, so yes: I'm carefully measuring out big doses into small doses --but you've got to do it right: a needle-less syringe, latex gloves, a good cap and locker for the unused remainder. If you have kids or dementia adults in the house, I see no way to keep them clear of a freshly treated dog for 24 yours, so Capstar seems the only option. (Again: I'm breaking tablets for large dogs into small portions --using a pill bisector, then storing the unused portion with desiccant in a small bottle.)
Dogson-2 Telescope: This link goes to a sub-page under Amateur Telescope Making (which see above).
Energy alternatives: Community subscribed solar panel and windmill farms to the rescue! (Perhaps bladeless wind "mills".)
Evolution: Or maybe: "the teleology of life".
Extreme sports: Draining the shallow end of the gene pool.
Ezekiel's UFO: This brave journalist kept his head up and reported what he saw. (I doubt that we've been so visited, but this makes a great story.)
Fleas: See Dog & cat fleas (above).
Fundraising: Arghhhh --!
Geiger counters: See Radiation (below).
Giant bubbles: See Bubbles --giant (below).
Granny-D: The Coos Bay artist.
Growth: Anything that keeps growing --becomes a fatal cancer. The first biological entity which limits its own population --well within its environmental carrying capacity --will be a remarkable departure from all that came before. Simply finding a way to escape the walls of our petri dish --won't.
Health insurance: At 78 years of age, "Medicare Advantage" is far more affordable than traditional Medicare plus "Medigap" (re: that 20% hole).
Hot car interiors: How many dead kids and pets does it take --to mandate cars that automatically self-ventilate (or at least blow the horn)!
Intentional Community: See Communes and intentional living (above).
Invention: Make your nice thing and give it away. I think the average guy is better off buying lottery tickets --than investing in a patent.
Kitchen Range: See Cook stoves/Ranges (above).
Living lightly: This is "Being poor" again (above). "Living lightly"/simply can be more than a euphemism for poverty. If the Democrats achieve significant steps toward more social equity, it will raise issues of just how much more popular prosperity and consumption our old Earth ball can tolerate. (China is getting broadly more prosperous --which might over-shadow any gains made here.)
Medicare & Wellness: This is "Health insurance" again (see above).
Music: Oh my: what is music about? I think we're only nibbling at the edges. Is the answer "ineffable"?
Noise: A "soundscape" in Nature can be both loud and feel buoyantly pleasant. A relatively quiet dripping faucet or a sniffing nose can be maddening. There's not much to be done about noise sources in our culture (save in a few gated communities with good "CC&Rs"), so for those of us sensitive to noise, sound proofing, noise canceling headphones, minus 38dB ear stopples and head gear --can go a long way toward preserving one's sanity.
Oat bread: Our bread recipe is so special that it deserves a web page of its own
PBS fundraising: Arghhhh!
PODcasts and radio: The only rational way to listen is to weave program content in and out of our busy, interrupted, on-the-go lives via PODcasts. Commercials are tolerable that way, since we can listen to the one's that interest us --or simply jump/fast-forward ahead.
Politics: Hand marked paper ballots. (I'll say no more.) (Here)
Poverty; "Being poor" again.
Printers: See "Desktop printers" (above).
Radiation: This has been a 10 year effort --to keep track of and archive the local background radiation count --initiated by the melt-downs and detonations in Fukushima. I've turned up nothing that looks suspicious, although something might be extractable from all my data. These be penetrating, gamma-like rays (photons) and maybe muons --or their secondaries. I suppose most of it is cosmic in origin, but I really don't know what I'm tallying here.
Radio & PODcasts: See "PODcasts and radio" (above).
Rock tumbling: A simple little rock tumbler, some grit (not nearly as much as directed), a handful of hard rocks --and you have a gem factory!
Sand pipers: Ah: "The Ascent of the Lark", and "The Lark Ascending" --I was privileged to witness the inspiration, but while watching sanderlings --and inspiring it was! "The time" came and hundreds of them took flight --circling ever upward until they disappeared into the clouds. Oh my: magic.
Slugs: One of those everyday miracles that most of us just pass by or ruefully clean up after --again: magic!
Small Is Beautiful: I hope I'm doing this theme some justice --through my many attempts on these web pages.
Sports: Several of my e-friends would like to have an automatic turn-off or station change feature that can recognize the word "sports".
Stereography: I took/made my first stereograph in 1958 --a print pair in a Wheatstone viewer. Enough said (here).
Technocracy: Do we have only two choices: walk forward into a technocracy (a managed society) --or walk backward into a technocracy? "Resistance is futile"? Might we at least carve out small pools of relative simplicity? Did all the contributors to the "Minutes of the Lead Pencil Club" succumb?
The 2-way book: Here's an heirloomish way that ink-on-paper books might yet beat the Devil (and per "Technocracy", above).
Time capsuling: Here's at least a private little carve out for you --against the tidal flood of history.
Tomorrow: Tomorrows aren't what they use to be.
Travel: Yet another private carve-out: stay home! Do nothing! (Well: how about at least slowing down some?)
TV antenna: Perpetual reception problems here --for more than 2 years, and Oregon Public Broadcasting seems to be politely gas lighting me about it. (We refuse to get a cable subscription --and I'm getting use to the extra free time I've gained (like for to do these web pages).
TV: Our Hisense H3 won't turn on: And it still won't. It went black during intense interference while trying to watch the Oregon Public Broadcasting channels.
The uniform keyboard piano: This, for both myself, and for the history of music, is a long story. Like several subjects on this list (DST, bladeless wind power, the 2-way book, the new abacus) the UKB is (at least nominally) politically/religiously neutral at the outset, so it might make a good study of our natural resistance to change. (To be clear, I think all change is inherently evil with heavy social costs --however much it might be needed or even essential.)
UFOs: See Ezekiel's UFO (above).
Ventilating car interiors: See Hot car interiors (above).
Weather: This page is mostly about the "wind chill" back story --and morbidly cold Minnesota winters (arghhh!).
Whither radio?: (No: not "weather radio" --but indeed: "whither".)
Words-2: This one's a biggy (for me, anyway).
Your weight at the North Pole: Probably, this one's simply beyond my ken, but that's my point: things don't add up (for me, anyway).
...Craig