Rational Exuberance: The Optimistic Traveler
Posted on November 1, 2008 - Filed Under Culture, Misc. | Leave a Comment
REVISION: The elections are over and for the first time America has a president that represents all of America and will do so to the rest of the world. I was at an election night party last night where we all toasted with pride that we could now go anywhere in the world and be [...]
Read More..>>12 Million Pixels: Review Panasonic FX100
Posted on February 8, 2008 - Filed Under Misc. | Leave a Comment
R.Johnson Veterans Day Shrine – London (Inset enlarged from frame) I have never been very much for boxy things: Humvees, large suitcases, Wagnerian contraltos. I own two boxy cameras, both antiques: a 1950s Brownie movie camera and a vintage Crown Graphic, a bulky machine with bellows once favored by cigar chomping, flashbulb-popping guys who [...]
Read More..>>Democracy and Debauchery
Posted on December 6, 2007 - Filed Under Audio, Culture, Misc., News, Travel Biz | Leave a Comment
Oh, we Americans are a wild and crazy bunch: toiling hard and productively, spreading democracy by day…partying hard by night. Or is it partying day and night? According to a new report on travel trends, we Yanks are binge drinking, G-string snapping “debaucherists,” longing for the eternal spring break. This report, put out by the [...]
Weighty Matter
Posted on July 28, 2007 - Filed Under Misc., Photography, Taiwan, Tech & Science | Leave a Comment
Went to the 87th floor of Taipei 101, the world’s tallest building, and saw this little item. Would hate to have it land on my toe as it weights 730 tons. This damper weight, designed the keep the 1,667 foot tower from swinging too far in a storm or earthquake, is said to reduce the [...]
Read More..>>Abbott or Hobbit?
Posted on July 26, 2007 - Filed Under Misc., Photography, Taiwan | Leave a Comment
I have toured most of the major cathedrals of Europe, slogged up the narrow stairs of many a major-Duomo, seen enough of the glory of God and the riches of Popes to tempt me to a career change, but what would Jesus think about this place? I am in Taipei, Taiwan to teach a seminar [...]
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