Richard Rathe's Reflections

Where I've been and what I've learned along the way…

Welcome!

Remain calm, be kind, and carry on regardless!

id photo 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…

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Food for Thought

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.
Francis Bacon

Featured Photo

Photo by Richard Rathe Birds, Spoonbill, Chicks, Nest, 2012

Birds, Spoonbill, Chicks, Nest, 2012

Social Media (Mastodon)

Jen Sorensen (@jensorensen@mastodon.social)

Jan 31, 2026

See original post on mastodon.

Latest comic: Hollowed out shells #cartoon #comic #uspol #media #authoritarianism #minnesota

Everglades Kayak Trip 2026 (Solo)

Birds Camping Everglades Galleries Nature Travel 2026

Sunset Behind Turtle Key

This was my 30th trip to the Everglades—different from all the others in several respects. First I was trying out new equipment (a sit-inside folding kayak). Second, I planned to just camp on a desert island, read, and take it easy. Third, I left from the Smallwood Store on Chokoloskee Island because the actual Ranger Station was closed for long-awaited hurricane repairs. I was also alone as there were no takers to join me this year.

Bicentennial Thoughts on the Semiquincentennial

Commentary History 2026

Preparing to Fly the Flag (July 4, 1976) Source: DC Public Library

I put out my American Flag today. I've decided to 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).

Road Trip West 3, Petrified Forest

Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026

Big Tree in the Crystal Forest

The next day I had a three hour drive to my next destination—Petrified Forest National Park. The southern entrance is less used than the north but two of he major hiking trails are there: Crystal Forest & Blue Mesa. Unfortunately there is no trail to Newspaper Rock—a major Petroglyph site. It was cold and windy, but apparently I came at a good time to see the many desert flowers in bloom. 🙂

Everglades Trip 2015 (Solo)

Birds Camping Everglades Galleries Travel Video 2015

Lake Ingraham Canal, Middle Cape in the Distance

This was my Eighteenth Everglades Journey and a collection of firsts for me: first Solo Trip, first en-route rendezvous, first exploration of the River of Grass, first time around Cape Sable, first time sailing beyond the horizon, first time camping in Florida Bay, and first major equipment failure (rudder). This was probably my penultimate trip! With the exception of bug problems at one site, it pretty much came off without a hitch. 🙂

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck

Birds Nature 2026

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck

Consider the Black-Bellied Whistling Duck! (One of the better bird names IMO.) Larger than average ducks, longer neck, pink bill & feet, used to be called tree ducks. I see these very early in the morning and occasionally a pair on a nearby dock. Only learned recently that they are mostly active at night, which is why I wasn't aware they were around.

Everglades Trip 2017

Birds Camping Everglades Galleries Panoramas Travel 2017

Planet Everglades

Everglades time again! This year I went for five days/four nights with my sister Diana Pray from LA. We did a lazy double figure eight route around northeastern Whitewater Bay and the Gulf. With the exception of a few distant motorboats we were completely alone for four days, quite remarkable! I brought along a 360° panoramic camera and took some impressive shots! [note1]

Contested Election 1876 — Tilden vs Hayes

Commentary History 1876

Cemetery of the Evergreens, New Lebanon, New York

There are many interesting parallels between the 1876 and 2016 presidential elections. Both had enormous impact on their times and what came after. Both had a great deal to do with race. Both where marred by chicanery and a split between the popular and electoral vote.

BWCA Canoe Trip 2024

Birds Bwca Galleries Photography Travel 2024

Route Map 2024, Click to Enlarge

This year we decided to base our trip out of Ely. We spent the night in the bunkhouse on Snowbank Lake. The next day we took the short drive to the official entry point #27 to head out into the wilderness.

Everglades Kayak Trip 2021 (Dec 2020)

Camping Everglades Travel Video 2021

Leaving Jewell Key

It started out so well… then the wind and waves shut us down—again. I haven't had a normal Everglades trip since 2017! I decided to try December to see if conditions would be better than the usual time in January. It did not make any difference in the end. On the plus side there were no bugs!

Thoughts on the Approaching COVID19 Pandemic (2020)

Commentary History Medicine 2020

Disease Transmission vs Fatality (nytimes.com, annotated)

I've annotated this NY Times graphic, rounding the estimates for COVID19 (aka the 2019 novel coronavirus) to 2% mortality and 2 people infected for every one who has the disease. What this suggests is the infection rate will be similar to a bad cold season, but unlike the common cold, a significant number of people will die of the disease.

Patent Medicines in the Age Before Scientific Pharmaceuticals

Galleries History Medicine 1930

The Tilden Company circa 1930 [source:NLHS]

My Wife's Grandfather worked as a chemist for The Tilden Company in Upstate New York during the early 1900s. As a result we came into possession of his Recipe Book for the plethora of nostrums and remedies he helped create. Some of the ingredients are still sold today under various brand names. Some are humorous, others are forgotten, while still others are downright dangerous. The following installments are my exploration of this unique window into the medical past. [Note: We donated the actual book to the historical section of the National Library of Medicine.]

BWCA Canoing & Hiking 2023

Birds Bwca Camping Travel Video 2023

Starting Out

This year's trip was a return to a familiar locale. Our goal was to establish a basecamp and take day trips from there. We started at Bearskin Lake and paddled across to the Duncan Lake portage. After exploring options on the north shore of Duncan we decided to stay on the campsite closest to the portage on the south shore (conveniently vacated by the prior group as we waited).

KIST to HTML Conversion Notes

Kist Projects 2026

Reference Link Example

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).

Catch-22 of the Digital Age

Commentary Technology 2009

Steal This Comic (source:xkcd.com)

I like to listen to audiobooks on my iPod. I have a subscription to Audible.com and buy one or two books a month. In the beginning things were fine, but about two years ago iTunes stopped remembering my Audible password. I get around this by double-clicking on any Audible file and put in my password when it asks. This fixes the problem long enough to sync. But if I quit iTunes, I start over. If I forget, iTunes automatically deletes the files from my iPod. Needless to say this is a major pain in the butt!

Road Trip West 6, The Longest Day

Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026

Area 51 Sign

I planned to stay overnight in Flagstaff, AZ so I could visit the Lowell Observatory in the evening. Apparently they give tours during daylight hours and then setup smaller telescopes to view whatever's happening in the sky that night. Alas, dark clouds moved in and there was precip predicted for the early evening. So I went to bed early…

Red Eft Newts

Critters Nature 2023

Red Eft on the Move

I was recently walking through a dense hemlock forest in upstate New York where I came across some chewed-up mushrooms and several little orange critters crawling around them. I instantly thought a) salamanders? and b) they must be eating the mushrooms. Turns out I was right on the first point and only half-right on the second.

Road Trip West 1, Westward Bound

Birds Flowers History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026

Roadside Pitcher Plants After Dark

I was called to California for a family wedding. The first part of my journey took me through several southern states, the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, & Arizona. I left about two in the afternoon so I arrived in Pitcher Plant territory after dark. Fortunately I knew where there was a patch just off the shoulder of a county road.

Desert Solitaire (Review)

Books Reviews
Edward Abbey (1968)

Desert Solitaire Paperback

I had the good fortune to pick up this paperback copy of Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey for reading material on my Recent Everglades Trip. It is an excellent book for both the stories and the perspective on our National Park System (of which the Everglades is a part). With all the tent time I read most of it by the end of the trip.

Sailing Kayak Mods & Camping

Boats Camping Everglades How_To Projects 2024

Adventure Island with Hakas & Quarterdeck (v2)

In 2018 I acquired a used Hobie Adventure Island sailing kayak. It came with trampolines that fit between the outriggers. As I learned the particulars of the craft it became obvious that getting out of the cockpit and sitting in/on the tramps wasn’t going to work for me. They also make it impossible to paddle the craft in any meaningful way.

BWCA Canoe Trip 2002

Bwca Camping Travel 2002

Our Group

My Siblings and I took a three night canoe trip in 2002. We also brought along two of my Niblings (it's a word, look it up!). We started with a canoe from my parents house, then rented a car and took a side trip to pick up a second canoe from my place in Brimson. We had a layover in Two Harbors before proceeding up the North Shore to the Gunflint Trail. We did a loop starting and ending on Poplar Lake. The highlight was an almost perfect day camping on Winchell. On the way back we were forced to use the same campsite on Horseshoe Lake because all of the sites on Gaskin were taken.

Everglades Kayak Trip 2022

Everglades Galleries Hammocks Travel Video 2022

Sailing Lunch Raft on the Gulf

The plan for this year was a clockwise tour around Whitewater Bay, with options to go out to the Gulf of Mexico and explore the Watson River. My cousin David Rathe and nephew Theron Pray decided to join me.

There is No ‘I’ in AI

Commentary Technology 2026

Tales from the Claude Crypt (from original post, uncredited)

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.

Good Morning Doctor!

Books History Medicine
W.A. Rohlf (1938)

W.A. Rohlf ~1910

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.

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