Notes From A Bear's Journey

     Not to worry, as my friend always says, because who on earth can remember banana splits unless you're as old as me, although to be honest, I've had just one banana split in my life since they were pretty much the generation before me.  And as far as dancing and doing "the splits," well them days are equally long gone (not that I could ever do them...ouch).  No, these splits are a bit more dramatic as in Earth shattering, or maybe Earth splitting...and it's happening now.  As an article in Discover noted:  Before a continent visibly splits apart, Earth may begin leaking gases from underground.  That may already be happening in Zambia, where gases bubbling through geothermal springs along the Kafue Rift carry chemical fingerprints linked to Earth’s mantle — a possible sign that part of the African continent is beginning to slowly pull apart...Continental breakup does not usually begin with dramatic volcanic eruptions  or giant cracks open...

     Tracking has never been as universal as it is today, from the postal service ("track your package"} to those hidden pixel tags.  Wait, those what?  Here's how one site put it:  A pixel tag is literally a microscopic image—often just one single dot on your screen—that you cannot see with the naked eye.  They are embedded in web pages and, most annoyingly, in emails.  When you open an  email  containing a hidden pixel, it secretly sends a message back to the sender. It tells them exactly what time you opened the email, what kind of device you used, and whether you clicked anything.   When my wife and I broke down and bought a new television, we checked beforehand if it had a camera built in, as most newer models do (ours didn't...phew; but it did have ACR or content tracking which tracks what you view and needs to manually be turned off).  But there are even more trackers being uncovered beyond those tiny pixels, and yes, th...

     Don't ask me why but I picked up a book on tractors.  Never owned one, no idea how to operate one, and no idea why the book attracted me like...well, like a tractor beam.  Maybe it was title: From John Deere to Lamborghini.  Wait, what??  Or maybe it was that naive thought of spending my later years in the country, grow a few veggies, chat with the nearest farmer ten miles down the road, hang out a Trump 2028 flag.  Okay, snap out of it.  Who was I kidding?  First of all, I'd starve, or worse if that pump to the well broke or that "cute" horse I bought for a song and a dance was one mean mare ready for the pasture and was having no part of my city-boy antics.  But then look at those tires.  Wait, I'm not being misogynistic because I still am talking about tractors here.  But what's with that younger, slimmer, no baggy eyelids Trump posing with a young Army cadet in the Oval Office?  Well I had to get your attent...