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…
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Environmentalism without class struggle is just gardening.
Panorama, Pictographs, Rock_Art, Defiance_House, Lake_Powell, Utah
Feb 08, 2026
#SuperbOwl #BarredOwl #Owls #Birds "Keep looking up!" I hear these guys/gals every day, often in the late afternoon. 🙂 🦉
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, CO 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 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 lay in one.
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'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).
Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
My target for this segment was inspired by a used book I came across while working at my local Friends of the Library—Sinagua Sunwatchers
by Kenneth Zoll. At first I had a bit of trouble finding the site online because the name has been changed very recently to better reflect its Native American origins. [The old name V Bar V
referenceed the now defunct ranch on the property.]
Birds Nature 2026
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.
Birds Flowers Galleries History Panoramas Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
We entered Arches National Park about 8am the next day. This was a great time for photographing the rock formations in the southern part of the park (near the entrance). Our plan was to take a leisurely drive north—exploring along the way—until we reached the Devil's Garden area. This is where the majority of the notable arches are. You might also like to view photos from My November 2024 Trip.
Galleries Nature Photography Plants Travel 2025
Spring is the time to hunt for carnivorous plants along the Gulf Coast of Florida and Alabama. The image below from 2020 shows three different, unrelated species that have all evolved the ability to trap and consume insects (Pitcher Plants, Butterworts, and Sundews).
Commentary History 1876
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.
Books
Douglas Adams (1998)
This was originally billed as a debate only because I was a bit anxious coming here. I didn't think I was going to have time to prepare anything and also, in a room full of such luminaries, I thought, What could I, as an amateur, possibly have to say?
So I thought I would settle for a debate. But after having been here for a couple of days, I realized you're just a bunch of guys! It's been rife with ideas, and I've had so many myself through talking with and listening to people, that I'd thought what I'd do was stand up and have an argument and debate with myself. I'll talk for a while and hope sufficiently to provoke and inflame opinion that there'll be an outburst of chair-throwing at the end.
Birds Nature Video 2023
We’ve had a family of four Sandhill Cranes lounging around our neighborhood for the past few weeks. These birds are endemic to Florida and do not migrate. Apparently there are two other non-migratory subspecies found in Mississippi and Cuba.
History Science Video
Hans Rosling (2010)
This spectacular section of 'The Joy of Stats' tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, Hans shows how the world we live in is radically different from the world most of us imagine. [source:youtube]
Camping Hammocks Reviews 2023
I became aware of Hammock Camping back in 2016. Luckily my first hammock was reasonably well designed and built. Seven years later that hammock has taken me many places and taught me a lot! Unfortunately it is showing some wear and I've been looking for a possible replacement.
Galleries History Travel 1976
In 1976 I was a sophomore at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. I had already done a few cross-country, multi-state bicycle trips in High School and continued planning short trips during my weeks off. The Bikecentennial was too good to pass up! In 2002 I scanned my 35mm slides and created this travelogue with representative quotes from my journal. What you see here is the current version updated in 2026, fifty years later!
Camping How_To Projects 2023
This is an idea I’ve been incubating for some time as a non-destructive “place anywhere” alternative to nails in trees or breaking living branches to hang things on. The knots required are very simple. Shown here is my first successful field test! It is tied using a short stick or similar object found locally.
Boats Camping Reviews Technology 2025
Oru kayaks started out small. The first one I saw in a sporting goods store several years ago looked like a toy. Since then they have developed several larger, more serious designs. Here is a summary of my experience with the Coast XT, their longest and most ambitious model—a 16ft sea kayak that weighs in at 32 pounds.
Art Galleries Hdr History Panoramas Travel Turkey_2016 2016
In 2016 we had the privilege of touring the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey. Originally built by the Greeks—the Romans took over the site in 129 BCE. The ruins are dominated by a long avenue lined with statuary and temples. This descending pathway leads to the Library of Celsus with it's two story facade mostly intact. There is a huge overhead structure protecting the Terrace Houses of wealthy inhabitants—looking very much like luxury condos today!
Apostle_Islands Galleries Hdr History Panoramas Photography Travel Video 2022
Over the past eight years I’ve walked along the Lakeshore Trail to admire the Cliffs and Sea Caves from above.
Commentary History Medicine 2020
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.
Everglades Galleries Photography Travel Video 2025
Just back from my 29th (!) wilderness trip in the Everglades! This year I went with my younger brother who is a veteran of a similar canoe trip in 2009. We made a tour of the four single chickees in the southern part of the park with an option to boomerang
out to the Gulf of Mexico on the tides. The trip pretty much came off without a hitch. Only downside was the nightime temps were in the upper 60s with little or no wind… so we had bugs!
Apostle_Islands Birds Camping History Plants Travel 2021
We made an amphibious landing to offload our gear and then moored the boat about a mile away at the pier. I pitched my hammock tent right on the beach between mature white and red pines. The level of Lake Superior had recently gone down so there was a more normal amount of beach exposed.
Projects 2022
I developed this todo list format in 2016. It allows you to easily translate from paper to digital—and back again! This approach is compatible with other journaling formats such as KIST, Bullet Journaling
and GTD.
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.
