Remain calm, be kind, and carry on regardless!
You've reached the online journal of Richard Rathe — online since 2004! In this iteration I'm trying a few new ideas: minimal markup, working with mostly plain text, and moving beyond the timeline. I call it BLIS (BLog It Simple). Find me online…
Click or tap on any Article or Social Media Post to see more. You can also Search by key words.
It is easier to stay out than get out.
Panorama, Lake_Powell, Slick_Rock, Canyon, Utah
Jun 04, 2026
Bots just officially outnumbered humans on the internet for the first time ever. Cloudflare’s latest report shows AI and agentic traffic has grown so fast its now the majority of online traffic. We crossed a line and most people didn’t even notice 😳 https://radar.cloudflare.com/traffic#bot-vs-human Dead internet theory is now becoming a reality
Critters History Travel Video 2019
On my trip west this year I made sure I had time to visit this unique area. The Dinosaur Tracks are located within and along side the Purgatoire River within the Comanche National Grassland. It is located 35 miles south of La Junta, Colorado off the lightly maintained County Road 25 (upper left in the map above). The last few miles are on a primitive forest service road that ends at the Withers Canyon Trailhead and Campground (four sites with fire grates and a pit toilet).
Camping Hammocks How_To Reviews 2025
There are various configurations of camping hammocks that I'll outline below. Most are gathered
with single tie-on points at each end. Some have integrated bug nets. Complete packages come with both nets & rainflies. After a brief survey of the different types, I go on to propose my criteria for the Ideal Hammock
.
Galleries Nature Plants 2026
While walking in the woods we came upon this huge pore fungus called Dryad's Saddle described as …an annual mushroom commonly found attached to dead logs and stumps or on living hardwood trees at one point with a thick stem. …On the underside one can see the pores that are characteristic of the genus; they are made up of tubes packed together closely. The mushroom's smell resembles that of watermelon rind.
[1]
Books Commentary History Music 2026
![Preparing to Fly the Flag (July 4, 1976) [source: DC Public Library]](commentary/america_at_250/img/bicentennial-1976.jpg)
I put out my American Flag today. 🇺🇸 I only fly the flag on special days and this is one of them. Thinking about what makes this day special is what gives the act meaning. One cannot be patriotic every day, but that's not required. We need days like this to think hard about history (those actions and actors who mattered), the present (our current situation and how it differs from what it should be), and the future (the history we might make during the time remaining to us).
Books Commentary History 2026
I've reworked these extended quotations from The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman (1986) for today's wannabe King
Trump. Tuchman's words speak to greater truths. My words are my own and speak for more immediate truths in desperate times.
Camping Everglades Galleries Travel 2004
This is the classic trip described online and in all the books—The Complete Wilderness Waterway (nominally 99 miles). It is a powerboat trail first (deep water with markers along the route), and a canoe trail second. We deviated from the powerboat trail in many places. I estimate we traveled more than 120 miles total. We cached my car at Everglades City and my Father provided the shuttle service down to Flamingo.
History Science 2010
I’m currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson. About a third of the way in he introduces Clair Cameron Patterson who could be the model of the modern citizen/scientist.
Camping Everglades Galleries Travel 2016
This is a quick-and-dirty gallery of my Everglades photographs. Only a placeholder for now while I work on converting my older sites. See my Everglades Wilderness Guide for more trips, maps, & photographs.
Camping Everglades Galleries Travel 2006
This is a quick-and-dirty gallery of my Everglades photographs. Only a placeholder for now while I work on converting my older sites. See my Everglades Wilderness Guide for more trips, maps, & photographs.
Bwca Camping Galleries Travel 2018
On this trip we planned to visit part of the central BWCA that had been ravaged by the 2011 Pagami Fire. Our goal was to reach Malberg Lake and take day trips from there. We entered at Kawishiwi Lake and proceeded down a small river maintained by a huge beaver dam.
Books Commentary Reviews Technology
Neil Postman (1985)
This important book helps explain the current state of our society, media, and education. Postman begins by contrasting the two great futurist novels, 1984 and Brave New World. He concludes that Huxley made the better prediction—no need for a police state when we have television!
Commentary Protest 2025
May 1, 2025
Galleries Panoramas Photography Travel 2014
About a year ago [2013] I upgraded the iOS on my iPhone 4s. A few days later I discovered a new option in the Camera App—Panorama Mode! Over the next few months I slowly realized that this was a serious photographic tool. Now I take it along as an important part of my photographic gear. It appears to work like a slit camera, but instead of moving the film, you must move the camera. This has interesting ramifications if some or all of your subject is moving (see my Treatise on Panopainting).
Camping Hammocks Reviews 2026
I recently bought a Ridgerunner Hammock from Warbonnet Outdoors. These are my first impressions. I'd been aware of this type of hammock for a few years and I was curious about them. Online descriptions and 2D photos don't really help much. This design makes much more sense when you actually lie in one.
Galleries Hdr History Panoramas Travel Video 2023
After braving the nearly washed out road from the north I arrived around 9am. I had to walk
my Prius diagonally over piles of gravel and exposed rock faces. This was my third attempt over twenty years to visit this important site. (The first two failed because the roads were completely washed out!)
Kist Projects 2026
Kist.pl renders documents as plain vanilla
HTML by default. Generated pages will degrade gracefully
to the degree possible. These pages contain a minimal set of CSS styles and javascript in the <head> element. (This helps make each kist-generated document self-contained.) Authors are free to override these styles with their own custom styles (using the -s flag).
Birds Camping Galleries History Travel 2021
I went for a quick solo kayak trip to Hall Creek near Cedar Key (putting in at the #4 Bridge off of Highway 24). I last visited this area in 2012 with a friend. The first mile or so is very shallow and I made a few mistakes on my way to Live Oak Key, where there is a narrow channel through the oyster beds. Surprisingly the old oak tree on the point is still alive! [compare with 2012]
Books History Technology
Thomas F. McGilvray (1905)
The northern city of Duluth Minnesota is famous for its Lift Bridge connecting the Canal Park area with the long sandy beach of Minnesota Point. However, the current bridge was not the first. The original structure was a more exotic Ferry Bridge. There are only a few examples left in the world. I found these images in a digitised book from that time.
Birds Flowers Galleries Iowa Travel 2025
This year I came and went three times due to other trips and obligations. Starting in May to open up the place. Then back in late July for the RAGBRAI and family reunion. Then back after trips to Brimson and the BWCA in September.
Commentary Video 2016
Most are familiar with the concept of FUD—short for Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt. It summarizes a strategy often used in marketing and political propaganda. Its effects are pernicious, divisive and lead to exploitation. Examples abound. Fear is a strong motivator! To resist FUD one must understand how it is practiced using the principles of Deception, Obfuscation and Misdirection.
Birds Bwca Galleries History Travel Video 2011
Just back from a challenging trip to the BWCA with my friend Ross. We had intended to start on the Sawbill Trail, but were told to evacuate just as we got to the entry point due to the rapidly expanding Pagami Creek Fire. (Satellite photos show this plume forming in less than two hours!)
Commentary Technology 2026
My Critique of: Your Voice, Your Choice
— A Guest Post by Claude Sonnet 4.5
The ELIZA Effect is a tendency to project human traits—such as experience, semantic comprehension or empathy—onto rudimentary computer programs having a textual interface.
This little book was conceived neither as a medical history nor as a technical discussion of surgery. It is instead a story of people, of friends with whom I have shared joy and sorrow, in short, bits of the day-to-day drama which is the life of a country doctor. Many of the incidents are trivial, in one sense of the word, yet each has had in it something which appealed to me enough to make me remember it as a highlight in my forty-five years as a country doctor.
