Notes From A Bear's Journey

   Woe is me is a common phrase from "back in the days," a version of feeling sorry for oneself in varying degrees; but often this was about as far as it got.  Suck it up, get on with life was what one would generally hear from friends and family, so generally you did just that and kept it all inside.  But somewhere Microsoft must have been employing an older engineer who remembered the Biblical phrase when it created Woebot and launched it five years ago in China.  At last, there was a "person" to talk to, and all the time no less.  Ask or tell anything, even about your day not going well, and XiaoIce (pronounced Shao-ice) would patiently listen and almost appear lacking in knowledge or "trying to be cute," said 18-year old Yuan Zhang of her new friend, "She was like a child" but: ...also a good listener and hungry to learn.  She would spend one weekend reading up on politics, the next plowing her way through works of great literature.  And sh

  So there's a wave of luxury cars and yachts and planes arriving on the market, all outside of the reach of most of us since even the standard luxury yacht can cost $10,000+ a week in maintenance, fuel, supplies and crew salaries when the yacht is being used.  But they're trying, said Penta , (maybe not so much the owners themselves but the yacht companies) by adding solar panels and lining the decking with cork instead of teak; this basic custom remodel begins at a measly €5.9 million if ordered via Amer Yachts of Italy.  Too much money for you?  Then just jump on one for your next visit to the Galapagos (what??).  You can get there on your customized personal Boeing jet complete with "living" walls of ferns and aquariums, not to mention king size beds and marble floors (remodels there begin at a cool $10 million but most spend upwards of $200 million for the job, not including the cost of the jet itself); Boeing already has 400 of these varied jets in the air and

   Phonetically, one would think that the word flood would be spelled "flud" but then throw in an "i" and that word would become "fluid;" or take away the "l" from flood and the word would become "food;" change the last letter from "l" to "r" and it becomes "floor," which rhymes with the giant corporation Fluor but is pronounced totally different from its dyslexic spelling of "flour."  Such are the variances of the English language, it's changing patterns and pronunciations perhaps overshadowed by the vocal intonations so necessary when speaking Mandarin in which a single inflection can entirely alter a word's meaning.  Hmm, this is likely a "flood" of information, but is perhaps indicative of just how a flood has come to be defined...unexpected, overwhelming, disruptive and often devastating.  To awaken to a broken washer line and a flooded floor (or in our area, a basement or c

   To begin, I won't even attempt to try and explain what's currently going on in Britain with their efforts to leave or to remain in the European Union, especially since I'm not there and I'm only reading or hearing about the events  second- or third-hand.  Which is not to say that other news sources are any clearer on the picture, one which seems to change almost daily if not hourly.  But the deadline looms and it would appear that if another vote is to be placed before Parliament and would again result in there being no agreement before the agreed date in a week, then there will likely be a request for an "extension" so that Britain can let the negotiations continue.  The one lingering problem is that no matter what Britain requests, the vote by the EU (to extend the talks) has to be unanimous in which all 27 countries have to agree; if just one country votes no then the severing would be a done deal.  So, good or bad?  For this question, the London Review

   It's a classic phrase that, at least here in the U.S., traditionally signals someone being at wits end or exasperated, frustrated enough that it breaks one's demeanor and makes them angry enough to protest or in some cases, to go a step further.  One would think that the meaning of "up in arms" would be somewhat literal, a time when it caused you to throw your arms in the air and to let them do the "talking."  But today's world is changing and one only has to think what comes to mind when you hear the word "arms."  Is it still a part of your body or is it part of a word cut off, as in arm-aments, a word which classically has been defined as "the process of equipping military forces for war."  Without growing too depressing, the latter came to mind when Bloomberg Businessweek ran this short tagline for an article: You thought the threat of nuclear war was history?  Better think again.  Hard.   Treaties are ending between the U.S.

   A couple of recent shows got me thinking about those words above, one show being the second season of the hit Australian series, Secret City , in which a house in a quiet neighborhood blows up as casually as a gas leak gone wrong only there's more; before long the Aussie government is contacting its military and soon the U.S. arrives and the story gets murkier and murkier until one begins to wonder what exactly is real and what isn't.  The other show was the Oscar winner for Best Picture, Green Room , a shocking and yet uplifting look at our country (the U.S.) some fifty years ago (and to which some would say, is still our country today).  Both of the shows vividly depict the undercurrents that now flow and perhaps have always flowed throughout history, something concurrent with the previous post of labeling people and locking them (and ourselves) into compartments or cages of our own design.  It was one of the featured thoughts in the recent issue of the Washington Spectat

    So picture this: you're a refugee from Africa, you're Muslim, you're female, you're gay, and despite being terrified of dogs you adopt an old and blind dog.  Oh, and you happen to be a best-selling author.  Such is the beginning of Irshad Manji's new book, Don't Label Me .   Here's part of her opening: A rising number of liberal democracies around the world have mega-manipulators at their helm.  They wrangle the levers of mass culture, especially social media, to exploit the mistrust that already exists among people.  Mistrust abounds largely because we the people have been manipulating one another, permitting out leaders to push the bar of integrity even lower.  Through technology designed to meet our greed for speed, the mistrust is jacked up to emergency levels.  Like the teams in a sudden-death playoff, we take refuge in our respective colors...We reolve to vanquish the other side.  We widen the vacuum of public trust, invariably creating the pretex

   The title of this post is generally recognized as a call for a toast or a cheer, and indeed t here is reason to celebrate in our house today because my wife is now successfully recuperating at home after having had a complete hip replacement.  Despite her constant working out and her rather healthy lifestyle, arthritis had managed to cathc up with her on one hip (but oddly, not the other) and while it was not yet bone-on-bone, it was painful enough to cause her a year of mild pain which grew progressively worse, a pain which eventually began causing her to limp for most of each day.  Activities such as running and even a walk with any sort of incline became close to impossible for her without a lot of grimacing and determined effort; and since hiking was and is a part of our normal outdoor routine a decision had to be made...change her lifestyle or change her hip.  Said one site: ... once the arthritic process begins, progression is almost always inevitable , a sentiment which was e