Remain calm, be kind, and carry on regardless!
You've reached the online journal of Richard Rathe — online since 2004! In this iteration I'm trying a few new ideas: minimal markup, working with mostly plain text, and moving beyond the timeline. I call it BLIS (BLog It Simple). Find me online…
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In a sea of ignorance, information is a life raft.
Infrared, Turkey_River, Iowa
Jun 02, 2026
Purple martin in flight yesterday along the trail at the Waterworks Prairie Park in Iowa City, Iowa. #birds #birding #BirdPhotography #wildlife #WildlifePhotography #nature #NaturePhotography #photography #AltText
Critters History Travel Video 2019
On my trip west this year I made sure I had time to visit this unique area. The Dinosaur Tracks are located within and along side the Purgatoire River within the COmanche National Grassland. It is located 35 miles south of La Junta, CO off the lightly maintained County Road 25 (upper left in the map above). The last few miles are on a primitive forest service road that ends at the Withers Canyon Trailhead and Campground (four sites with fire grates and a pit toilet).
Birds Flowers Galleries History Panoramas Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
We entered Arches National Park about 8am the next day. This was a great time for photographing the rock formations in the southern part of the park (near the entrance). Our plan was to take a leisurely drive north—exploring along the way—until we reached the Devil's Garden area. This is where the majority of the notable arches are. You might also like to view photos from My November 2024 Trip.
Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Rock_Art Travel 2026
We left Green River heading north to Wellington and the Petroglyph megasite known as Nine Mile Canyon. The backway
road went over a small pass before descending into a beautiful flat-bottomed canyon. This is the best map I could find on the web. [source: National Scenic Byways Program]
Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
My target for this segment was inspired by a used book I came across while working at my local Friends of the Library Sinagua Sunwatchers
by Kenneth Zoll. At first I had a bit of trouble finding the site online because the name has been changed very recently to better reflect its Native American origins. [The old name was V Bar V
in reference to the now defunct ranch on the property.]
Birds Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Travel 2026
The next day I had a three hour drive to my next destination—Petrified Forest National Park. The southern entrance is less used than the north but two of he major hiking trails are there: Crystal Forest & Blue Mesa. Unfortunately there is no trail to Newspaper Rock—a major Petroglyph site. It was cold and windy, but apparently I came at a good time to see the many desert flowers in bloom. 🙂
Flowers Galleries History Road_Trip_2026 Rock_Art Travel 2026
I established my campsite and went for a walk about an hour before sunset. It was a magical time to be out in the desert. Some of the rocks are volcanic in origin. I think that may be a cinder cone in the distance. There is a large abstract petroglyph on the right (click to enlarge).
Birds Camping Galleries History Travel 2021
I went for a quick solo kayak trip to Hall Creek near Cedar Key (putting in at the #4 Bridge off of Highway 24). I last visited this area in 2012 with a friend. The first mile or so is very shallow and I made a few mistakes on my way to Live Oak Key, where there is a narrow channel through the oyster beds. Surprisingly the old oak tree on the point is still alive! [compare with 2012]
Birds Flowers Galleries History Panoramas Travel Video 2020
It had been ten years since I last visited Lake Powell. This year I went with my college friend Al and his partner Marian. Not having our own boat, we decided to rent a houseboat from the Bullfrog Marina. This turned out to be a great idea! With a few exceptions it was clean and well maintained (certain lights and the gas grill did not work).
Medicine Medinfo 2016
I have worked with home-grown and commercial Electronic Medical Records for over thirty years. The use of dot commands
(a period followed by a trigger phrase) is about as old as personal computing. (I first encountered dot commands in the WordStar word processing program during the 1980s!) These commands generally fall into three categories:
Medicine Medinfo Projects 1997
Jrju
(Chinese for spider) is a Perl program that weaves hypertext 'notebooks' from plain text files. An author creates notebook pages using the JTX markup format. Jrju will process a directory of JTX files into a cross-linked collection of HTML pages. Jrju rebuilds the entire notebook each time so there are no broken links or orphan pages.
Commentary History 1876
There are many interesting parallels between the 1876 and 2016 presidential elections. Both had enormous impact on their times and what came after. Both had a great deal to do with race. Both where marred by chicanery and a split between the popular and electoral vote.
Camping Hammocks Reviews 2022
The Kammok Mantis is most notable for the superior materials used. My favorite is the night sky
bug net material, which nearly disappears on dark starry nights. The hammock fabric feels very light and sturdy, while having a slight texture that makes it less slippery. The fly is made from an extremely light waterproof fabric (silnylon). It all goes into a very small package weighing 2 lb 11.5 oz (per Kammok website).
Medicine Medinfo 2006
…the biggest complaint — with potentially dangerous implications — involved the automatic alerts that flashed on the screen every time a doctor made an out-of-the-ordinary request. Designed to catch errors before they occur, the alerts became an unending series of questions, reminders and requests on fairly basic decisions.
Commentary Protest 2025
This was my fourth protest against Trump—and the second nationwide No Kings Day! This time we rallied in a shady city park and it was even bigger. I estimate at least one thousand participants.
Galleries History Travel 2012
A concise collection of photos from our 2012 trip to China. Including the Li River Valley, Terraced Mountain Rice Fields, Many Museums, Taoist Temples, Buddhist Temples, The Terra Cotta Army, Pandas, Shanghai, The Great Wall, and Beijing.
Books How_To Projects Technology 2026
I first encountered this delightful self-publishing format while visiting family in Sacramento. The city has many older neighborhoods with small houses and small yards. The locals take great pride in their sidewalk-facing gardens, including pro-social embellishments like little library
boxes and such. One house had a dispenser with these little pamphlets. I was impressed and intrigued.
Everglades Galleries Photography Travel Video 2025
Just back from my 29th (!) wilderness trip in the Everglades! This year I went with my younger brother who is a veteran of a similar canoe trip in 2009. We made a tour of the four single chickees in the southern part of the park with an option to boomerang
out to the Gulf of Mexico on the tides. The trip pretty much came off without a hitch. Only downside was the nightime temps were in the upper 60s with little or no wind… so we had bugs!
Books Reviews Technology 2007
Just back from attending this short course by the master of intelligent design
himself Edward Tufte. It was well worth the time and effort! I'd recommend it to anyone who prepares or presents information with a computer (ie, just about everyone!). His insights are numerous and often challenge conventional wisdom. His bottom line is to enhance communication by increasing the dimensionality and resolution of data. The course included copies of all four of his major books, highlighting the most recent, Beautiful Evidence. The photo shows his discussion of Powerpoint's role in the Columbia disaster, which I reviewed in 2005 and is included in Beautiful Evidence.
Everglades Galleries Photography Travel Video 2024
This year we planned an aggressive trip—going down the Gulf Coast to access the narrow Wood River, revisit Camp Lonesome, stay at Willy Willy, and then loop back through the various inland bays on our return. Yet again we were thwarted by adverse winds.
Camping Canyonlands Galleries Hdr History Travel Video 2018
I recently returned from a backcountry bike trip on the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park near Moab Utah. We were a mixed group of twelve riders with three high ground clearance support vehicles coming after us. We started near the Island in the Sky
Visitor Center and camped four nights along the trail.
Boats Camping Reviews Technology 2022
I’ve used a “traditional” inflatable kayak for several years, mostly in special situations such as houseboat camping or floating down rivers. They can be very practical and lots of fun in these settings. They are bouncy and sit high in the water, more like life-rafts than kayaks. The one thing they are NOT good for is a windy day on open water! So I was intrigued when I read about newer designs that approximate the capabilities of hard-sided kayaks. Advanced Elements produces several models including the Expedition Elite reviewed here.
Commentary Technology 2026
My Critique of: Your Voice, Your Choice
— A Guest Post by Claude Sonnet 4.5
The ELIZA Effect is a tendency to project human traits—such as experience, semantic comprehension or empathy—onto rudimentary computer programs having a textual interface.
This little book was conceived neither as a medical history nor as a technical discussion of surgery. It is instead a story of people, of friends with whom I have shared joy and sorrow, in short, bits of the day-to-day drama which is the life of a country doctor. Many of the incidents are trivial, in one sense of the word, yet each has had in it something which appealed to me enough to make me remember it as a highlight in my forty-five years as a country doctor.
