One of my recent posts got lots of views on Facebook which is still a useful tool.

My Facebook post from September 5 about various map projections has seemed to go, at least somewhat, viral. It's been forwarded 25 times and seen by around 15,000. At least that post is getting out and about. I set my preferences on Facebook so people, beyond just my friends list, can see what I share.

I also put things on this blog for a few more viewers not using Facebook and for archival use. I sometimes call Facebook the McDonalds of the internet. Hard to beat it's continued convenience and popularity. Nothing is perfect, but it can be a good tool. Some people don't like Facebook, but people also use oil companies and claim they don't like them either. I don't drive.

When I start a conversation about Lake Ontario, hardly anyone notices.

Anything Trump says starts worldwide discussions. I hate to add to that process, but I'm falling for it also. I decided to share some pictures of Lake Ontario, a focal point of discussion in today's news since his plans to rename it Lake America.

Here's some of my memories which will, at least, be seen by a handful of people. Memories from my longest bicycle trip across the country in 1991. Going east by bicycle, in two months, and back home on Amtrak in 3 days.

Looking out over Lake Ontario from Fort Niagara, NY. during my 1991 bicycle tour.

By the way, this was built by the French in 1727, then became British after French Indian War. Then became American after Revolutionary War. Fought over in The War of 1812. Now a peaceful New York State Park.

Niagara Falls between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Lake Ontario from CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario. I crossed part of southern Ontario, Canada on my way east. Took a transit side trip into Toronto for one day from my 2 night campsite at Confederation Park near Hamilton, Ontario.

From CN Tower's outside screened deck. Better pictures from inside deck through the glass.

The view from the CN tower is spectacular. It casts a long shadow.

Not the best picture. My bicycle and Lake Ontario in the background from around Rochester, NY.

Yes, a real politician in Upstate New York, back in 1991. I had to put this in for laughs. I can think of jokes about Trump and outhouses.

Years later, Rob Outhouse wrote me a nice letter when he found this on my trip website. My photography does make small waves.

As CBS crumbles, the internet provides more platforms where talent and freedom of speech still thrive.

Corporate powers have decided to end CBS Radio News. Our local affiliate, KGMI, has switched to ABC Radio News.

Sometimes I liked listening to John Batchelor's CBS Eye on the world. Though it was a bit conservative (I am open minded) I learned a lot about the workings of the economy from his interviews. Now, like so many things, his show survives on the internet. We live in an era of diversity on the internet. Lots of things taken off traditional media may even have more followers on YouTube.

Yes, the billionaire tycoons run much of traditional media as well as the social media platforms, but the platforms are a bit different. Diversity of opinion can still thrive.

Traditional media used to always say that the newsroom and editorial staff had a "firewall" between them and the sales department. News and opinion could be objective from being bought, supposedly.

Looks like the billionaires do try and run everything, including government, but freedom of speech still finds its way.

RIP CBS Radio, at least, and maybe eventually CBS TV? Oh, I didn't say that did I?

In some cases, it may feel like my writing says, "I told you so."

As the world struggles with its problems, it seems like I can't offer much to help except my unique way of thinking. I don't have a lot of money, but my relatively low footprint lifestyle could be an example for more people to live. That, and some little things I can do each day in my local world is the best I can offer; like mostly just trying to be a decent human being.

Bailing out the ocean with a teacup.

It may seem like commenting on world issues is futile; like trying to bail out the ocean with a teacup. My mom used to say that, when describing an overwhelming task.

Still, I do enjoy sharing ideas so at least it's therapeutic and could be helpful.

I am starting to learn a new platform called Substack. At first, it seemed like just redundant to my blog with little momentum of audience, for me at least. Like reinventing an already existing wheel, but I have found a feature that my blog doesn't have. Substack Notes.

The reason why it's different is that it links to articles in other media, like Facebook does. It provides a thumbnail image from the media source similar to Facebook, but can be seen on the open web.

Facebook is still more of a "membership only" platform, yet it has the momentum of interaction that's lacking on other platforms, unless one is a celebrity.

If one is not a celebrity, for instance, having your own thing like Truth Social isn't likely. That's Trump's bully pulpit. Yes, most of you will groan. Mediocrity does seem to rise to the top.

As for fame and fortune, I sometimes am a bit envious of folks who are being chased by reporters with microphones and cameras.

Still, it's good to have more privacy; the privacy of being a nobody. These things are always tradeoffs.

My Substack Notes works well for linking to articles in other media with my own introductions. I just started it today. By the way, it happens to be Earth Day 2026.

My website is a repository for my own writing and photography.

Sorry. Your eyes are probably glossed over by now.

When oppressed people around the world cry out for help, what can we do?

Fighting is usually not a good way to improve the human condition. Since WWII, the US has tried using war as a tool to liberate people from oppression. The plans seem to fail most of the time.

While most Americans have a certain amount of human rights, parts of the world are enslaved in authoritarian regimes like in Iran. There may be better ways through foreign aid, education and communication, such as the availability of internet access, to melt oppression. Voice of America broadcasts are good, but Trump has cut funding for that. Military intervention seems to seldom work and is a lot more expensive.

In our collective memory is the liberation of Germany and Japan after our victory in WWII. Since then, our attempts to repeat that have not been that successful. Our second invasion of Iraq to "liberate" the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein brought chaos and continued autocracy. I fear that bombing Iran may not help the people overcome that theocracy.

Often people do look to the US for help, however. In the 1990s, there was an intertribal genocide in Rwanda. I remember hearing about that in the news. We mostly stayed out of that and many people died. In other cases, we have tried to intervene, especially if world oil supply and economic interests are in question.

Are there good strategies for promoting democracy around the world?

We are certainly affected by the lack of democracy in other countries as many folks, trying to escape oppression, come knocking on our borders as well as the borders of most democracies, such as Canada and UK. The recent reaction, in many democracies, is to tighten borders; especially when world migration becomes overwhelming to our infrastructure.

Is there enough housing? Is there enough water in the drought stricken Colorado River to meet the need of growing population in that area? One thing we don't hear much about now is the drought in much of Iran. Climate change and local mismanagement, by Iranian authorities, has created a water crisis. Could innovative ways to address these problems help more than going to war?

Even here at home, mismanagement of our economy is evident. We have a president who wants to rededicate USA to fossil fuels. The world may be turning more violent and authoritarian, rather than smarter in addressing the changes that we need for a better and more sustainable future.

When war happens.

I've been following the news and reading a wide range of perspectives from various media sources as well as postings from friends on Facebook. Many interesting perspectives are out there.

It's hard to figure out where to begin in expressing my own thoughts and inserting them into the vast amount of opinions that fill the medias. As events happen quickly, I tend to wait till the dust settles, though it never totally settles. I tend to try and express what I think is best for the long term. What is best for the long term isn't clear in short order.

Trump takes up a lion's share of the attention span. In the shadow, my blog is hardly noticed.

It was Theodore Roosevelt who coined the phrase Bully Pulpit.

Today is planned a State of the Union speech by Trump. Every time Trump opens his mouth, or posts something on social media, it starts a national conversation. I wish my posts would get even a tiny fraction of the conversation started whenever Trump posts something. His conversation seems to suck most of the oxygen out of the room, meaning attention span. There's only so much attention span to go around.

Glad I'm not super famous as there are drawbacks to that. Just a modest amount of attention span and interaction is good enough for me.

Superbowl and cultural rivalries get attention while the science and technology we use gets less big media attention.

This Superbowl was a rivalry between two blue state teams. Seattle, the winner from my home state of Washington, while Boston the loser, also from a blue state of Massachusetts. Both teams won their berths at the Superbowl past other teams, red state or blue state, on the way up the ladder.

I usually take little interest in sports and I tend to be more interested in science and technical topics than cultural topics. Now I hear of a cultural post game rivalry between two different versions of the Half Time Show. One, the official show from the field and another stage, in a different location, watched on the net. The official one leaned more blue, inclusive of more of the Western Hemisphere's peoples while the other more red and USA centric.

Trying to learn more, as I didn't watch the game, I scanned a few articles about both half time shows. I notices some people, on the USA centric side, saying that their show was an alternative to the bigger corporate official half time show.

To me, both shows were on the big stages fueled by corporations, big audiences and so forth.

It does seem like society spends lots of time and energy on sports and cultural topics while the technical and scientific issues, that bring us our material needs and wants, get less attention. Technical things such as city planning, housing, transportation and energy bring less interest. Culture and lifestyle topics are important also and I write about them a lot as well. I do think some of our material wants are too extravagant however, which can corrupt our cultural values, both on the blue and the red state sides. Car addiction, for instance. Money addiction as well. Money seems to rule the big stages most of the time.

Can a message get though the static? These days, static is information overload. In the past, it was distance and natural static.

In the old days of broadcast radio and TV, much of the audience size was determined by the power of the station's transmitter. How far could the signal reach before it was drowned out by distance and static?

On today's social media, even small signals, like my website, have a global reach. The limit is not natural distance and static, but another kind of "static" - information overload. Can a small website and Facebook presence get much audience, given all the other information sources competing for attention time?

These days, the static is information, not just the random radio hiss, or television snow of past eras. Continued below.

In the past, some TV static was said to come from the Big Bang's cosmic background radiation while most of it was from local sources, such as thermal noise, or appliances and thunderstorms. Photo I found on Wikimedia Commons.

When I was in grade school, I was impressed with the new transistor radios that people had. I remember thinking, "The more transistors radios had, the more amplification for picking up distant, faint signals. Most transistor radios had 6 transistors. I thought, "If one had 100 transistors, maybe it could pick up stations all around the world?"

Later I realized that no matter how much amplification a radio had, the faint signals would still be lost in the static. Amplification would also amplify the static so the faint distant station could still not be heard above the static.

On shortwave international band, stations could still be heard around the world, but that was different from the AM band used by those pocket transistor radios.

The power of the radio station was important back then. At night, some AM signals could travel farther due to nighttime ionospheric skip. 50,000 watt KGO, in San Francisco, was a powerhouse that could send a clear signal up and down the entire west coast. It was top rated for audience size for many years.

Then along came the internet so transmitter power became less relevant. KGO basically imploded into a low rated business, in terms of audience share. Continued below.

Above: Old nighttime coverage map from another big San Francisco station; KNBR 1970s.
Below: Part of a bicycle trip I took in 2009. Past KGO transmitter visible from bike path on Dumbarton Bridge.

Today, there is the concept of "going viral;" a term not even known during my childhood. For audience size, some information reaches huge audiences just because it went viral. An idea, meme, song, artwork or even a politician can reach an audience in the millions, or even billions. It's hard to tell why somethings go viral while others don't. This seems to follow various patterns of mass psychology. Why did Kim Kardashian get so famous, or even Donald Trump, for that matter?

The power the transmitter, itself is no longer the issue, but media power is still a factor. I recently read an article by Robert Reich warning about growing consolidation of corporate media power; especially in cable TV networks. The consolidation of ownership and control of media, by a handful of billionaires, is becoming more alarming.

Folks on the left have been talking about this for years, while I have tended to place more blame on people's attention priorities, themselves, versus control from the top. That was past decades, but control from the top seems to be getting more serious today.

It may have also been serious in the days of only 3 big TV networks and the control of big corporations, such as RCA; owner of NBC. I remember hearing, from my parents, that NBC also owned ABC. In old radio days NBC was called the Red Network while ABC was called the Blue Network until such a time that anti trust laws broke it up. I guess CBS was always, somewhat, independent.

Back in the 1990s, I thought that ease of access to the internet for artists and writers, such as myself, would bring on a golden age of diversity, global interaction and enlightenment. Today, it looks like that thought was a bit naive.

I still fault people for most of this problem. Folks are gullible and can easily be manipulated by the rich and famous. Billionaires from Taylor Swift to Donald Trump are able to manipulate us like pawns.

I still hope there will always, somehow, be conversations beyond the command and control of big money.

I'd never heard of Jimmy Kimmel till this controversy. I don't watch regular TV.

I never heard of Jimmy Kimmel till this recent controversy since I don't watch regular TV. Glad he's back. Now I read his comeback show had 6.3 million viewers on network TV in spite of Sinclair stations refusing it.

Even more impressive was over 26 million people across social media platforms like YouTube. The media landscape is evolving.

Substack may fit me better than Blue Sky as an alternative to Facebook.

I find I haven't been using the Blue Sky social media platform. Facebook still brings the response. Other platforms have less momentum of engagement. Also Blue Sky's limit of 300 characters is too confining for my nuance. It's more an alternative to Twitter than Facebook and I don't use Twitter.

Recently, I've started learning about Substack. From what I gather, it's like a blog space / social media with room for nuance. A difference from Facebook is the revenue to run the platform coming from subscriptions instead of advertising. Less, or no, pressure from advertising to drive algorithms seeking just clickbait.

One can still have and follow blogs on Substack without subscription, but the more popular blogs, I guess, will generate a cut of subscription revenue for the platform so it can run without the problem of ad driven algorithms.

I think that's correct, but I'm still learning about it.

It seems like a good idea to me. I'd say, "let the popular celebrities like Taylor Swift or Kim Kardashian (I'm being a bit cynical) bring in the revenue to pay the bills while the rest of us can go along for the ride."

I know there are also lots of real thought provoking celebrities, like astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson and economist Paul Krugman, who may have many paid subscribers as well.

For me, the important part is to be able to participate in meaningful conversation, even at a small scale in terms of celebrity status.

A strategy for reducing anxiety from the news while remaining engaged and informed.

I find the 24/7 news tickers add to my insomnia problems and anxiety. This is the "straight news," hard news, or just the facts; supposedly; as is described in Journalism school.

I do have to limit my consumption of that and stick to my own interests in reading, editorial analysis and educational things from sources like NPR. I also read columnists, from places like New York Times and even Wall Street Journal; when I can see them outside those publication's paywalls; on Yahoo News; for instance.

I often learn my news from Editorials rather than the hard news ticker. Editorials beyond just the silo of my own worldview. Some diversity of opinion on the spectrum of left to right, or other spectrum. Still admittedly, it is likely not humanly possible to be totally objective in what media I choose to listen to. Still, I go for thought provoking analysis and learning, versus the constant state of emergency, scary, drone of the 24/7 so called "straight" (there is a pun here) news ticker.

Remember speed reading?

Back in my college days, I remember a bunch of ads for speed reading classes. Pay some money and learn speed reading.

It seems like one doesn't hear much about speed reading classes, these days. Maybe it's because folks are less likely to be reading books than before.

I had difficulty getting through big reading assignments, in college, due to my lack of speed reading skills, I guess. I tend to work more slowly and I tend to favor more interactive learning than just absorbing tons of information. Shorter readings and things like NPR podcasts of round table discussions are more my speed.

Sound bytes and debates on X don't appeal to me. I tend to go for the middle ground when it comes to consuming information; modest sized, but more nuanced than things on X. I also seem to need to express my own feelings and ideas along the way.

About getting the momentum started on a new social networking platform.

I think the Blue Sky platform will have better luck competing with Facebook than attempts to compete with Facebook in the past. Granted, it's not quite the same, it's more like Twitter (now X).

In the past some attempts to compete with Facebook couldn't get the momentum going due to platforms playing lip service to privacy.

Privacy is kind of the antithesis of social networking. If folks are on a new network, privacy will mean little content can be seen until one builds up a network of friends. Getting this momentum started can be difficult.

Facebook got going early so the friend networks are established. Other platforms have trouble breaking that momentum unless they are more like the open web where content can be searched in Google and so forth.

Where content can be found without having to be friended in friend networks. In a more open environment, friend networks can still develop over time.

I think the wish for privacy may have made Ello, an alternative social network launched in 2014 never really got off the ground. It closed in 2023.

Content on Blue Sky seems to be more available to newcomers who haven't yet established friend networks there. Reddit is similar in being more open as are platforms like Flickr.

Starting to learn my way around Blue Sky Social Media.

I now have a presence on Blue Sky, but I may end up still liking Facebook more. Blue Sky limits the size of posts so it is more of a realm of sound bytes, rather than in depth discussion.

I plan to link, from Blue Sky, to my blog where there is room for the nuance. Readers may be less apt to follow links than to click the "read more" link in a Facebook post. Still maybe not, it's a link. I think Blue Sky is more like Twitter (now X) only much better and not owned by Elon Musk.

I haven't used Twitter for writing, but I have used it some to follow things like space missions; linking out to NASA and other ongoing news sources.

A link to my presence on Blue Sky Social. It's mostly links back to this blog.

For more things, not already posted on this blog, Facebook users can find my Facebook wall.

I am now on Blue Sky Social Media as well.

I've been fairly prolific on Facebook which is more interactive than this blog. I plan to keep my Facebook wall, but now opening up a new outlet on Blue Sky. This, in part, due to friends and followers leaving Facebook. They can now find me on Blue Sky.

It's like opening up a new transmitter, if one were in the radio business.

Problem is, Blue Sky limits the size of posts so many of my posts, there, will be links to this blog for more nuance.

I also use Flickr for sharing many photos. Reditt is kind of a learning curve for me, but I use it some. Pretty much my whole online presence is at my website which mostly serves as bookmarks to my archive of things across several platforms.

Scroll down to more of this blog, or visit above link to website.

Be careful not to jump to conclusions when hearing the headlines.

The man behind the incident known as Pizzagate was recently in the news again. On first glance, I was afraid Trump was appointing him to high office.

Turns out he was shot by police during a traffic stop as he was pointing a gun at the police. He died soon after.

This was the man who, in 2016, followed bizarre rumors that began with a leaked email referencing Hillary Clinton and pizza parties. It morphed into fake online news stories about a child sex trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats operating out of a Washington, D.C., pizza joint. Back then he showed up at the pizza parlor armed.

His demise came after a confrontation with police during a traffic stop in 2025.

Many years ago, I was listening to a late night talk show on the old KGO in San Francisco. Some elderly lady called in and was very upset that all the former presidents supported NAMBLA (National Man Boy Love Association). THe talk show host thought she was a kooky caller and hung up.

I realized she had heard a headline about all the former presidents supporting NAFTA (North American Free Trade Act). She thought NAFTA was NAMBLA due to poor radio reception and / or bad hearing.

Those following Taylor Swift.

My 2012 picture of BC Place Stadium.

A billionaire, Taylor Swift, coming to Vancouver, BC; near Bellingham.

This is expected to have an effect on I-5 traffic to the border. I hear the tickets to see her in concert sell for around $900 (my guess $900 Canadian, maybe not quite $900 US).

I guess people on the right of the political spectrum can worship Donald Trump and Elon Musk while folks more toward the left have their billionaire idols as well. We might need the billionaires on our, more left side of the political spectrum, as in fighting fire with fire, so to speak.

The priorities I spend my money on are quite a bit different than going to live concerts like that. I don't go to football games either.

I have gone to Vancouver, BC to be among 500,000 folks in Vancouver's Gay Pride Parade, however. I bicycled to a motel in Surrey and took the Skytrain from there. No luck finding an affordable room in Vancouver, itself. The gay parade, itself, was free.

56 people killed in Guinea soccer stadium disaster following controversial referee decision.

Competitive sports can be hazardous. Here in USA, we recently had some controversy over a logo, or something, displayed in the opponents side of the field. Stirred up news headlines that I didn't fallow, but now I can't find that news.

Things have been even worse overseas as this headline was also in the news, around the same time.

56 people killed in Guinea soccer stadium disaster following controversial referee decision.

Monday's events are the latest in a long line of soccer stadium disasters over the last three decades.

I remember, in the 1980s, when a riot broke out in a stadium in Great Britain and part of the old stadium structure collapsed killing many fans. They talked about suspending the games for a while in UK back then.