My "artsy" creation for today.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Monday, January 30, 2017
The End Is Nigh for USA and Others?
Making the Chicken Run, Part I
By Doug Casey, founder, Casey Research
"Making the chicken run" is what Rhodesians used to say about neighbors who packed up and got out during the '60s and '70s, before the place became Zimbabwe. It was considered "unpatriotic" to leave Rhodesia. But it was genuinely idiotic not to.
I've written many times about the importance of internationalizing your assets, your mode of living, and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers have treated those articles as they might a travelogue to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of little immediate personal relevance.
I'm directing these comments toward the U.S. mainly because that's where the problem is most acute, but they're applicable to most countries.
Now, in 2017, the U.S. is in real trouble. Not as bad as Rhodesia 40 years ago – and definitely a different kind of trouble – but plenty serious. For many years, it's been obvious that the country was eventually going to hit the wall, and now the inevitable is rapidly becoming imminent.
What do I mean by that? There's plenty of reason to be concerned about things financial and economic. But I personally believe we haven't been bearish enough on the eventual social and political fallout from the Greater Depression. Nothing is certain, but the odds are high that the U.S. is going into a time of troubles at least as bad as any experienced in any advanced country in the last century.
I hate saying things like that, if only because it sounds outrageous and inflammatory and can create a credibility gap. It invites arguments with people, and although I enjoy discussion, I dislike arguing.
It strikes most people as outrageous because the long-running post-WWII boom has been punctuated only by brief recessions. After 70 years, why should it ever end? The thought of a nasty end certainly runs counter to the experience of almost everyone now alive – including myself – and our personal experience is what we tend to trust most. But it seems to me we're very close to a tipping point. Ice stays ice even while it's being warmed – until the temperature goes over 32° F, where it changes very quickly into something very different.
First, the Economy
That point – economic bankruptcy accompanied by financial chaos – is quickly approaching for the U.S. government. With deficits over a trillion dollars per year for as far as the eye can see, the U.S. Treasury will very soon be unable to roll over its maturing debt at anything near current interest rates. The only reliable buyer will be the Federal Reserve, which can buy only by creating new dollars.
Within the next 24 months, the dollar is likely to start losing value rapidly and noticeably. Foreigners, who own over 6 trillion of them (including T-bills and other IOUs), will start panicking to dump them. So will Americans. The dollar bond market, today worth $40 trillion, will be devastated by much higher interest rates, a rapidly depreciating dollar, and an epidemic of defaults.
And that will be just the start of the trouble. Since the U.S. property market floats on a sea of debt (and is easy to tax), it's also going to be hit very hard, again, this time by stifling mortgage rates. The next step is up for interest rates. Forget about property owners paying their existing mortgages; many won't be able to pay their taxes and utilities, and maintenance will be out of the question.
The pain will spread. Insurance companies are invested mostly in bonds and real estate; many will go bankrupt. The same is true of most pension funds. If the stock market doesn't collapse, it will only be because money is looking for a place to hide from inflation. The payout for Social Security will drop significantly in real terms, if not in dollars. The standard of living of most Americans will fall.
This rough sequence of events has happened in many countries in recent decades, and they've survived the tough times. But it has the potential, at least in relative terms, to be more serious in the U.S. than it was in Argentina, Brazil, Serbia, Russia, Mozambique, or Zimbabwe for two main reasons.
First, many people in those countries knew they couldn't trust their government and acted accordingly, even in contravention of the law, by accumulating assets elsewhere. So, there was a significant pool of capital available for rebuilding. Americans, on the other hand, tend to be much more insular, law-abiding, and trusting in their government. When they lose their U.S. assets, they'll have lost everything.
Second, those societies were significantly more rural than the U.S. is today. As in the America of 100 years ago, much of the population lived quite close to the land and had practical skills and habits that helped them get through the tough times. For 21st-century Americans, it's a different story. Shortages and disorder are going to hit commuters who live in suburbs, and urban dwellers who think milk appears in cartons magically, like a ton of bricks.
One thing you can absolutely count on is that everyone will look to the government to "do something." Americans really do think governments control the way the world works. Another certainty is that the U.S. government will "step in" massively, because everyone will want them to, and the politicians themselves believe they should. This will greatly aggravate the crisis and make it last much longer than necessary.
Then It Gets Serious
But that's just over the short run. The long run is much more serious because the next chapter of the Greater Depression has every chance of radically, and at least semi-permanently, overturning the basic character of American life. Ice turned to water – suddenly and unexpectedly – in Russia in 1918, Germany in 1933, China in 1949, Vietnam in 1954, Cambodia in 1975, and Rwanda in 1995. Those are just the first examples that come to mind. There are scores more.
The economic events I've outlined are going to mean serious hardship and unpleasantness for many people. But that doesn't concern me nearly as much as the social and political reaction.
Regards,
Doug Casey
Making the Chicken Run, Part II
By Doug Casey, founder, Casey Research
Everybody gets hurt in a serious depression, but if you understand what's going on and prepare for it, you can do well enough.
Of course, political and social change always follow economic and financial upheaval, but I think it's going to be much more drastic this time because the U.S. has been on the road to becoming a police state for quite a while. The trend was supercharged by the so-called War on Terror, starting in 2001. And it's likely to go into hyperdrive in the months to come as the economy emerges from the eye of the storm. I know it seems asynchronous to think of a police state in a suburban country dotted with shopping malls. But not really.
Think in terms of science fiction, a genre that has far more predictive value than the work of any futurist or think tank.
Reality is mimicking art. In 1932, Aldous Huxley described a highly controlled utopia in Brave New World, where drugs made everybody think (actually feel, because thinking could only make you unhappy) that they were happy. The U.S. has pretty much done that drill, consuming massive quantities of everything on credit, watching American Idol and its clones in every spare moment, and using plenty of Ritalin and Prozac along the way.
Sixteen years later, George Orwell described an even more tightly controlled dystopia in 1984. Everybody knows that story, even if they haven't read the book.
Interestingly, like good sci-fi writers, both authors were just a generation or so ahead of events. What we're likely to see in the next few years is elements of both their worlds.
Actually, we're seeing it right now, or at least a preview. Whenever I return to the U.S., dealing with Immigration and Customs makes my skin crawl. And they're no longer just at airports and the border; they now range many miles inland and make random stops to see if your papers are in order.
They're almost as objectionable as the TSA, which has developed a highly dangerous corporate culture, even as it's grown in numbers and power, now reaching into buses, trains, and soon the highways. The FBI, the CIA, the DEA, the ATF, the Secret Service, the Federal Marshals, FEMA, and literally scores of other national law enforcement agencies are all expanding rapidly.
They've long constituted a veritable Praetorian Guard, but now truly have lives of their own. Homeland Security is completing its new 400-acre campus in Washington, D.C. Police forces all over the country are increasingly militarized in both equipment and attitude. And the military itself, bloated on a budget of hundreds of billions a year, has come a long way from the slapstick world of Beetle Bailey, full of steroid-pumped Black Ops wannabes who've picked up plenty of bad habits in the government's numerous undeclared wars. All these types endorse the dozens of "fusion centers" that have been created across the U.S. to collect and correlate information from every source imaginable, for some purpose.
All these organizations are bureaucracies. They serve themselves first. Their prime impulse is to grow and increase their budgets. They tend to attract the wrong kind of person and drive out people of good will. And it's reached a stage where even if John Galt were elected president, he'd find them not just impossible to uproot but dangerous to confront.
So, here's another prediction. Riding the economic and social disorder, these new Praetorians, oriented as they are toward professional paranoia and the "national security" state, are going to become truly virulent. They're going to use the continuing economic crisis to increase their power, like it or not. The American people will demand it, since they are so degraded that they really do prefer the appearance of security to the prospect of having to take personal responsibility.
If I'm right (and I feel as sure about this as I ever have about anything), then it's not going to go well for libertarians, classical liberals, old-line conservatives, individualists, freethinkers, non-conformists, people who subscribe to letters like this or cruise suspicious websites, or gamma rats, generally. It was a dangerous environment for these types (not to mention those of Japanese or German descent and members of various religious groups) during America's past crises. When the chimpanzees are hooting and panting, you'd better join them, or they'll start wondering why not.
I expect what we're looking at is going to be much more serious than any past crisis, partly because America has already evaporated, like the morning haze on a hot summer's day. You're not in Kansas anymore. Kansas isn't in Kansas anymore.
Regards,
Doug Casey
By Doug Casey, founder, Casey Research
"Making the chicken run" is what Rhodesians used to say about neighbors who packed up and got out during the '60s and '70s, before the place became Zimbabwe. It was considered "unpatriotic" to leave Rhodesia. But it was genuinely idiotic not to.
I've written many times about the importance of internationalizing your assets, your mode of living, and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers have treated those articles as they might a travelogue to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of little immediate personal relevance.
I'm directing these comments toward the U.S. mainly because that's where the problem is most acute, but they're applicable to most countries.
Now, in 2017, the U.S. is in real trouble. Not as bad as Rhodesia 40 years ago – and definitely a different kind of trouble – but plenty serious. For many years, it's been obvious that the country was eventually going to hit the wall, and now the inevitable is rapidly becoming imminent.
What do I mean by that? There's plenty of reason to be concerned about things financial and economic. But I personally believe we haven't been bearish enough on the eventual social and political fallout from the Greater Depression. Nothing is certain, but the odds are high that the U.S. is going into a time of troubles at least as bad as any experienced in any advanced country in the last century.
I hate saying things like that, if only because it sounds outrageous and inflammatory and can create a credibility gap. It invites arguments with people, and although I enjoy discussion, I dislike arguing.
It strikes most people as outrageous because the long-running post-WWII boom has been punctuated only by brief recessions. After 70 years, why should it ever end? The thought of a nasty end certainly runs counter to the experience of almost everyone now alive – including myself – and our personal experience is what we tend to trust most. But it seems to me we're very close to a tipping point. Ice stays ice even while it's being warmed – until the temperature goes over 32° F, where it changes very quickly into something very different.
First, the Economy
That point – economic bankruptcy accompanied by financial chaos – is quickly approaching for the U.S. government. With deficits over a trillion dollars per year for as far as the eye can see, the U.S. Treasury will very soon be unable to roll over its maturing debt at anything near current interest rates. The only reliable buyer will be the Federal Reserve, which can buy only by creating new dollars.
Within the next 24 months, the dollar is likely to start losing value rapidly and noticeably. Foreigners, who own over 6 trillion of them (including T-bills and other IOUs), will start panicking to dump them. So will Americans. The dollar bond market, today worth $40 trillion, will be devastated by much higher interest rates, a rapidly depreciating dollar, and an epidemic of defaults.
And that will be just the start of the trouble. Since the U.S. property market floats on a sea of debt (and is easy to tax), it's also going to be hit very hard, again, this time by stifling mortgage rates. The next step is up for interest rates. Forget about property owners paying their existing mortgages; many won't be able to pay their taxes and utilities, and maintenance will be out of the question.
The pain will spread. Insurance companies are invested mostly in bonds and real estate; many will go bankrupt. The same is true of most pension funds. If the stock market doesn't collapse, it will only be because money is looking for a place to hide from inflation. The payout for Social Security will drop significantly in real terms, if not in dollars. The standard of living of most Americans will fall.
This rough sequence of events has happened in many countries in recent decades, and they've survived the tough times. But it has the potential, at least in relative terms, to be more serious in the U.S. than it was in Argentina, Brazil, Serbia, Russia, Mozambique, or Zimbabwe for two main reasons.
First, many people in those countries knew they couldn't trust their government and acted accordingly, even in contravention of the law, by accumulating assets elsewhere. So, there was a significant pool of capital available for rebuilding. Americans, on the other hand, tend to be much more insular, law-abiding, and trusting in their government. When they lose their U.S. assets, they'll have lost everything.
Second, those societies were significantly more rural than the U.S. is today. As in the America of 100 years ago, much of the population lived quite close to the land and had practical skills and habits that helped them get through the tough times. For 21st-century Americans, it's a different story. Shortages and disorder are going to hit commuters who live in suburbs, and urban dwellers who think milk appears in cartons magically, like a ton of bricks.
One thing you can absolutely count on is that everyone will look to the government to "do something." Americans really do think governments control the way the world works. Another certainty is that the U.S. government will "step in" massively, because everyone will want them to, and the politicians themselves believe they should. This will greatly aggravate the crisis and make it last much longer than necessary.
Then It Gets Serious
But that's just over the short run. The long run is much more serious because the next chapter of the Greater Depression has every chance of radically, and at least semi-permanently, overturning the basic character of American life. Ice turned to water – suddenly and unexpectedly – in Russia in 1918, Germany in 1933, China in 1949, Vietnam in 1954, Cambodia in 1975, and Rwanda in 1995. Those are just the first examples that come to mind. There are scores more.
The economic events I've outlined are going to mean serious hardship and unpleasantness for many people. But that doesn't concern me nearly as much as the social and political reaction.
Regards,
Doug Casey
Making the Chicken Run, Part II
By Doug Casey, founder, Casey Research
Everybody gets hurt in a serious depression, but if you understand what's going on and prepare for it, you can do well enough.
Of course, political and social change always follow economic and financial upheaval, but I think it's going to be much more drastic this time because the U.S. has been on the road to becoming a police state for quite a while. The trend was supercharged by the so-called War on Terror, starting in 2001. And it's likely to go into hyperdrive in the months to come as the economy emerges from the eye of the storm. I know it seems asynchronous to think of a police state in a suburban country dotted with shopping malls. But not really.
Think in terms of science fiction, a genre that has far more predictive value than the work of any futurist or think tank.
Reality is mimicking art. In 1932, Aldous Huxley described a highly controlled utopia in Brave New World, where drugs made everybody think (actually feel, because thinking could only make you unhappy) that they were happy. The U.S. has pretty much done that drill, consuming massive quantities of everything on credit, watching American Idol and its clones in every spare moment, and using plenty of Ritalin and Prozac along the way.
Sixteen years later, George Orwell described an even more tightly controlled dystopia in 1984. Everybody knows that story, even if they haven't read the book.
Interestingly, like good sci-fi writers, both authors were just a generation or so ahead of events. What we're likely to see in the next few years is elements of both their worlds.
Actually, we're seeing it right now, or at least a preview. Whenever I return to the U.S., dealing with Immigration and Customs makes my skin crawl. And they're no longer just at airports and the border; they now range many miles inland and make random stops to see if your papers are in order.
They're almost as objectionable as the TSA, which has developed a highly dangerous corporate culture, even as it's grown in numbers and power, now reaching into buses, trains, and soon the highways. The FBI, the CIA, the DEA, the ATF, the Secret Service, the Federal Marshals, FEMA, and literally scores of other national law enforcement agencies are all expanding rapidly.
They've long constituted a veritable Praetorian Guard, but now truly have lives of their own. Homeland Security is completing its new 400-acre campus in Washington, D.C. Police forces all over the country are increasingly militarized in both equipment and attitude. And the military itself, bloated on a budget of hundreds of billions a year, has come a long way from the slapstick world of Beetle Bailey, full of steroid-pumped Black Ops wannabes who've picked up plenty of bad habits in the government's numerous undeclared wars. All these types endorse the dozens of "fusion centers" that have been created across the U.S. to collect and correlate information from every source imaginable, for some purpose.
All these organizations are bureaucracies. They serve themselves first. Their prime impulse is to grow and increase their budgets. They tend to attract the wrong kind of person and drive out people of good will. And it's reached a stage where even if John Galt were elected president, he'd find them not just impossible to uproot but dangerous to confront.
So, here's another prediction. Riding the economic and social disorder, these new Praetorians, oriented as they are toward professional paranoia and the "national security" state, are going to become truly virulent. They're going to use the continuing economic crisis to increase their power, like it or not. The American people will demand it, since they are so degraded that they really do prefer the appearance of security to the prospect of having to take personal responsibility.
If I'm right (and I feel as sure about this as I ever have about anything), then it's not going to go well for libertarians, classical liberals, old-line conservatives, individualists, freethinkers, non-conformists, people who subscribe to letters like this or cruise suspicious websites, or gamma rats, generally. It was a dangerous environment for these types (not to mention those of Japanese or German descent and members of various religious groups) during America's past crises. When the chimpanzees are hooting and panting, you'd better join them, or they'll start wondering why not.
I expect what we're looking at is going to be much more serious than any past crisis, partly because America has already evaporated, like the morning haze on a hot summer's day. You're not in Kansas anymore. Kansas isn't in Kansas anymore.
Regards,
Doug Casey
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Computerized Cat.
Benzy watches his "Cat TV" streaming video from his favorite chair in Erin's room. Erin starts the show every morning before she leaves for work. Tim has set up a tray cover over the keyboard to prevent errant entries on the laptop. Can you believe that a cat can actually become addicted to the screen? What a life for a cat!
Occasionally Benz takes a break and goes from one window to the next, taking in "the real thing". So much fun for a very protected kitten.
Since our previous cat Dash was eaten by the coyotes, Benz is not ever allowed to go outdoors. The outside world must appear to him to be a very strange and beckoning place indeed.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Dumb Inventions: Wireless Earbuds with Cord.
Am I missing something here? Engineers come up with state-of-the-art earphones that don't need any wires and then they put cords connecting them together. I suppose it's so you won't lose them but... COME ON!
How can you call them cordless or wireless now?
A Better Idea? - Right up there with one of my own great inventions that, so to speak, never took off. I called the brand "EMOTIONS" because you can feel them but you can't see them. I thought I lost the original prototypes somewhere but I recently found a pair in my drawer:
Invisible swim trunks.
I really feel EMOTIONS would be better suited as younger womens' wear. (I'll spare you the experience of seeing me model these!)
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How can you call them cordless or wireless now?
A Better Idea? - Right up there with one of my own great inventions that, so to speak, never took off. I called the brand "EMOTIONS" because you can feel them but you can't see them. I thought I lost the original prototypes somewhere but I recently found a pair in my drawer:
Invisible swim trunks.
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| I called the brand "EMOTIONS" because you can feel them but you can't see them. |
I really feel EMOTIONS would be better suited as younger womens' wear. (I'll spare you the experience of seeing me model these!)
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This Is Not Your Normal January
As we near the end of January I find myself longing for snow. I know that sounds crazy but what we've had here for the past few weeks is not normal. We have had very few sunny days and the temperatures are above normal, sometimes into the mid-50s F.
What is getting me down though is the lack of sun. I like it to be either snowy and blustery or sunny and mild - but not in between. Oh well, as every Canadian will tell you, "You don't have to shovel it". Take your vitamin D and shut up. Let's hear it for "Global Warming." Ha ha.
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Sunday, January 22, 2017
The Millstone Bar & Cafe and a Country Song.
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| "The Millstone Bar & Cafe" Somewhere USA. Click to enlarge. |
This "Redneck" bar exists only here, digitally (and in my mind). I hope they're right about Trump though. Must be celebrating the inauguration and "Make America Great Again" with "STRIPPERS all day Friday". The woman in the window looks a little distraught. She might do better at the Millstone Bar with a couple of ice cold beers.
Hey! I think I can hear music comin' from down at the bar... "Here's my lyrics to a hanky honker I writ just fer you":
The Millstone Bar Blues
Lyin' eyes, cryin' eyes.
Girl you kill me with them lyin' eyes.
The Millstone Bar, and all the millstone guys,
And no one buys your crummy lies and alibis
Hitch your wagon to a shinin' star,
There ain't no windows in the Millstone Bar
Where you're headin' you ain't goin' far.
Drown your troubles and lose who you are,
instrumental
Bobby's tire is flat and so's his spare,
Maybe soon he'll try to get it fixed somewhere.
All through life he's lived free as the God given air,
Hey. This guy's not really goin' anywhere.
So drink your beer with all the guys,
Then go face your husband with them cryin' eyes.
He loves you woman and he always tries,
To believe your stories and your silly lies.
instrumental
Lyin' eyes, cryin' eyes.
Babe you kill me with them lyin' eyes.
The Millstone Bar, and all the millstone guys,
And no one buys your crummy lies and alibis
Nobody believes you
Go home to your husband.
Get away from this Bar.
Lyrics by Tim Carroll 2017.
Saying: "A millstone around your neck"
Definition: A problem that you have all the time which prevents you from doing what you want
Note: A millstone is a large stone that is very heavy.
Saying: "Look through a millstone"
Definition: To have exceptional powers of perception. A millstone is opaque and thus is impossible to see through. "I knew she was a dishonest person the minute I met her. I can look through a millstone, you know".
My "artsy" pic is a composition of an abandoned general store in Napier Ontario (from Google Street View) combined with another general store I snapped in southern Kentucky or Virginia coal country back in 2011. Embellished with a few extra signs and some old cars and we have today's pic for your enjoyment.
Here's the "real thing". Dexter's Coal Country General Store. Some place off the beaten track from our drive through there in 2011.
If you ever thought you could write lyrics and sell them like a short story or script - think again. That's not how it's done in the music business. Read about how you can (and can't) get your song to market if you CLICK HERE.
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Friday, January 20, 2017
The Trump Card
The world's been Trumped...
Good luck Donald. I really hope Canada is able to ride along with you and stay great.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2017
The Old Merrill In Colour!
There, I did it...
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| Click the postcard to enlarge it. |
The black and white from which I created the colour post card.
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Monday, January 16, 2017
Chatham Art Without Going There.
It's been quite a few years since I've even been through Chatham but my picture of the Metro Hotel taken from Nate's Restaurant got me thinking I could maybe produce a half decent postcard without even having to visit the venue. I Googled "boutique hotels" and came across the RetroSuites Hotel on King Street in Chatham. I vaguely remember it as a sleazy "watering hole" when I used to pass through monthly on business back in the 1970's.
Back then it was called the Merrill Hotel. I think I actually had a draught or two here many years ago. I think I might try colorizing this picture soon because the "before" picture, in this case, looks more retro to me then the "after" picture.
I went to Chatham with Google "Street view" and captured these pictures
Using a little imagination and removing stuff like traffic lights and adding some classy cars, I created the following two post cards. I'll place it in my postcard collection in "Capture a Dream". You can see them and my other efforts, if you CLICK HERE.
Next time I'm in Chatham I'll drive by and see this fine old hotel, preserved from the 1890's. You can read about the history of the old place CLICK HERE.
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Back then it was called the Merrill Hotel. I think I actually had a draught or two here many years ago. I think I might try colorizing this picture soon because the "before" picture, in this case, looks more retro to me then the "after" picture.
I went to Chatham with Google "Street view" and captured these pictures
Using a little imagination and removing stuff like traffic lights and adding some classy cars, I created the following two post cards. I'll place it in my postcard collection in "Capture a Dream". You can see them and my other efforts, if you CLICK HERE.
Next time I'm in Chatham I'll drive by and see this fine old hotel, preserved from the 1890's. You can read about the history of the old place CLICK HERE.
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Sunday, January 15, 2017
What Do Cats Think About Us?
You may be surprised...
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| "What are you thinking Benzy?" |
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Saturday, January 14, 2017
The London Ontario Covent Garden Market
These "artsy" pics were taken last week during a heavy snowfall.
The snowflakes were huge Sunday morning so we drove downtown to the market. Not too many people there so it was quite peaceful. We stopped by Nate's Restaurant for a falafel.
I took this picture from Nate's. It was snowing hard and the Hotel Metro across Covent Market Place looked very inviting on a cold day. I added the girl with the child on a sled to give the shot a little more interest. As usual you can click on the pics to enlarge them.
Here's a post card.
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The snowflakes were huge Sunday morning so we drove downtown to the market. Not too many people there so it was quite peaceful. We stopped by Nate's Restaurant for a falafel.
Here's a post card.
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Friday, January 13, 2017
CLUE: Look Very Closely At The Dinner Plate...
Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?
ANSWER: Are you ready? - Scroll Down
Poor people have it. Rich people need it. If you eat it you die. What is it?
"Nothing!"
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Thursday, January 12, 2017
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Is Everybody Happy?
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| This picture looks good enlarged. Click the pick to blow it up. |
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Sunday, January 8, 2017
Such a Deal! Budget Ships.
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| Note: Price shown is for Participation Class (Passenger agrees to work during cruise) |
Think "Enochlophobia", the fear of crowds.CLICK HERE to read about this phobia. I don't know how the soldiers did it! Hopefully this picture shows the men coming home which would make the cramped trip a lot more tolerable.
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Saturday, January 7, 2017
A Ghost Ship In Ship Art.
My "artsy" pic for today is a rather eerie composition that comes from both the past and the present.
As Wendy and I were passing the docked freighter "Algorail" last summer, I noticed an interesting form in the battered paint. It reminded me of the "ss Noronic". The Noronic was a fine old passenger steamer which burned in Canada's worst maritime disaster in Toronto in 1949 killing over 100 people.
The Noronic mysteriously seemed to be portrayed on the side of the Algorail.
This is a post card from a hundred years ago showing the proud passenger ship Noronic.
Wendy's grandfather was a member of the Noronic's orchestra years before it burned at the foot of Yonge Street in Toronto in 1949. Read all about it in the Toronto Star CLICK HERE.
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| Click on the picture to enlarge it. |
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| "Algowaves" |
And this is more Ship Art from the same ship (Algorail).
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Wednesday, January 4, 2017
The Uncanny Valley Girl - Or Kitsch From My Warped Mind.
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| "Uncanny Valley Girl" |
I could babble on with something about the girl has "no roots" or she's just a pretty face or something deep like that, but really this kitsch composite was just for fun. Mannequin and doll heads are strangely odd. This one has a weird and yet captivating look though, don't you think?
"There is a phenomenon known as "The Uncanny Valley". In aesthetics, the uncanny valley is the hypothesis that human replicas that appear almost, but not exactly, like real human beings elicit feelings of eeriness and revulsion among some observers. Valley denotes a dip in the human observer's affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases with the replica's human likeness. Examples can be found in robotics, 3D computer animations, and life-like dolls among others." (Wikipedia)
It's amazing to me what can now come purely out of a person's mind and, through the magic of computers, can be illustrated digitally here on my humble blog. Please enjoy my "Uncanny Valley Girl".
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Tuesday, January 3, 2017
The Rum Is Gone!
My "artsy" pic for today:
Timing is everything on a cruise. The trick is to get the end of the rum to line up with the end of the cruise. Both are sad events of course but somehow I managed to accomplish this delicate balance on our last cruise.
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| Click the pic to enlarge it. |
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Monday, January 2, 2017
Please, Please Feed the Birds!
Benzy loves to watch the birds but there is no feed in the bird-feeders. Hmmm. I guess we better fix that.
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Sunday, January 1, 2017
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