The Upside Is Really Great Surf.

Polka Dot Gallows today, from the LA Times, forsooth.

So.  El Niño is here- and on track to be the most intense on record, actually.  Which means?

Floods, mudslides, drought and crop failure in Africa and other places;

11 million children in immediate need of food.

But hey!  Really great surf in California!

Oh, and beach communities battered into oblivion.

Always look on the bright side!

And in that vein; isn't it great how our ability to focus on the utterly trivial is being honed into perfection by our need to ignore reality - at any cost?

Progress!

A bit of GOOD news today.

Generally, it's a lousy news day - world stocks crashing, huge chunks of ice breaking off Greenland, whales dying in Alaska - not a lot of fun.

Imagine my surprise, when I ran into this article on neighborhood networking in Italy.  Read it, it's delightful!

And, a terrific model.  If I lived in a city, I'd for sure try to launch one of these in my neighborhood; or join one if someone has already launched.

It's simple- a couple of people launched an invitation to a closed group on Facebook; just for people in the neighborhood.  Both on Facebook; and with plain paper fliers.  Now- instead of a crowd of strangers; many know each other, say hello on the street- and help each other constantly; for free.

Of course this is how neighbors should act - but we rarely do these days.

I love it!  You should do it!  :-)

On The Ground. :-)

I've watched this video 4 times so far; twice with Smidgen.

Solar Impulse Lands In Hawaii

Great.

Something admirable.

And boy, is "admirable" getting hard to find these days.  But I felt particularly motivated to find something today- in view of the world-wide litanies of awfulness, and imminent awfulness.

There is something underway right this minute (8:48 AM US Central Daylight Time) that I believe we can all find admirable.  Quixotic, to be sure- but all the humans involved in this effort seem to be motivated not by greed or self-inflation; but by the pure desire to - move forward.

Ok, we don't want to get into "what is really forward?"; let's just enjoy the moment here.

One man in an astonishingly fragile machine is flying, at this moment, between Japan and Hawaii.  Slowly.  The trip is expected to require 120 hours.  And he is "past the point of no return" now.

The Solar Impulse craft is 100% solar powered, and keeps flying at night using electricity stored in batteries during the day.  To me, this is somewhat more daring than Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic ocean, using a single gasoline engine powered plane- that kind of powered flight had far more years of development than this matchsticks and plastic wrap and flashlight batteries gizmo.

Ok, it's a lot more sophisticated than that.  :-)  But still - these folks, and this pilot, are sticking their necks way, way out.

Whimsical?  Quixotic?  Absolutely.  But also one of the good things about humans; we can sometimes poke at the Universe a bit, looking to find our more than we knew; even if it means risking our necks.

Admirable.

And, boy, am I grateful to see it.
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UPDATE-

Looking for an update- nope, it is SO not in the news.  It took me a little internet digging; but; there is a website that gives current information during the flight: Follow The Flight.

I think they definitely need a couple communications/advertising nerds to help with the web info (in the few minutes I've looked) - but; it's there.