Category Archives: Uncategorized

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” – Stephen Covey The previous two LOTRW posts have focused on oral history – which at its core might be thought of as … Continue reading →

Let me tell you what I wish I’d knownWhen I was young and dreamed of gloryYou have no controlWho lives, who dies, who tells your story? – Lin-Manuel Miranda[1] Continuing our LOTRW oral-history thread. Just outside DC here, my senior-living … Continue reading →

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,          The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear: Full many a flow’r is born to blush unseen,          And waste its sweetness on the desert air. – Thomas Gray[1], Elegy Written in a Country … Continue reading →

Leave it to the poet Robert Frost, writing more than a century ago, to capture in 9 short lines and 51 words the challenge facing the world, and perhaps its ultimate fate: Fire and Ice Some say the world will … Continue reading →

On this day, twenty years ago, Indonesia (and much of southeast Asia) experienced a catastrophic tsunami. The physical impacts extended across much of southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. The human impact was global. For example, more than 500 Swedes … Continue reading →

“Civilization exists under geological consent – subject to change without notice.” – attributed (sometimes) to Will Durant. “If you are afraid to fail, then you should go and become a banker.” Yossi Vardi “A banker lends you an umbrella when … Continue reading →

The previous LOTRW post left this question hanging: Why, in the aftermath of natural disasters, do we simply rebuild as before – in the same way, and on the same land – when this perpetuates losses and human suffering? On … Continue reading →

On this real world, natural threats and hazards – cycles of flood and drought; hurricanes and winter storms; earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions; and more – are much in evidence. They are not merely features that make Earth a bit … Continue reading →

Start with some context. Sea level rise is forecast to shrink the land area of Florida by some 1-10% by the end of the century. Much of this land is in Florida’s south. The area affected includes the Everglades and … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s LOTRW post is reproduced here verbatim, but in its original form — before the ChatGPT transformation of certain sections into unrhymed iambic pentameter. I’m doing this because some readers might be interested in just what was retained and what … Continue reading →