One part Mark Twain, and two parts Garrison Keillor, prize-winning humorist and essayist Homer Croy was a man of many distinctions: The first student of the first school of journalism in the United States, the first person to tour the world shooting motion pictures, and the first author of his day to write a best-selling novel that happened to be anonymous. Dale Carnegie dedicated his opus How to Win Friends and Influence People to him; Will Rogers, for whom Croy wrote more films than any other, made him honored guest at his Thanksgiving table. In between his pioneering studies in journalism at the University of Missouri and his mid-life, Missouri farm memoirs that sold in the hundreds of thousands, Croy flunked out of college, moved to the Big Apple, filmed his way around the world, tied the knot in the first marriage ever captured on a Universal newsreel, worked for Theodore Dreiser, earned a fortune, moved to Paris, tragically lost two children, wrote for Hollywood, earned an honorary doctorate, and, in the end, lost his fortune all while maintaining the down-home humor and heart that earned him a reputation among peers as the towering cornstalk of midcentury, midwestern memoir. — Cornell University Library Digital Collections
This is part of the American Folkways Series which I have found to be very interesting although all the books are dated they provide some great history. Highly recommended!
“This was Peter Kropotkin’s final book, in which he theorizes about the development of the modern state and how modern science and technology can assist in freeing working people from capitalism. First published in 1912 in France, sections of this book have been translated and published in English (as short books and pamphlets and journal articles), but never as a whole work as Kropotkin intended. More than 10 percent of this book has never before appeared in English. Introduced and annotated by Iain McKay.” — Book promo @ Amazon
This is a very short book which is good since I could not have waded through one that was much longer. Originally published in 1903 so it is not very ‘modern’ and a lot of time has passed making some of what was written very dated. Not recommended.
While the Tech Lords in the US are busily scrambling about trying to buy political influence and whatever is left of NASA is recovering from last month’s Pride events, Chinese social media is buzzing at the recent discoveries found in lunar samples from the successful return of Lunar Probe Chang’e-5. At China’s Institute of Physics, researchers discovered a previously unknown mineral compound which is enriched with water molecules and ammonium, which they have named ULM-1.
Since the Apollo Moon Missions—from an era when the US still had a space program—scientists have held that the moon is completely arid. The last Apollo Mission was in 1972 when technology for more detailed analysis had not yet been developed. Instead of accepting the settled science and focusing on celebrating diversity, China developed its own space program with qualified engineers.
China’s most recent lunar probe, Chang’e-6 returned to earth this year. The Chinese opened an international Space forum with a goal of building a permanent station on the moon, which they hope will be manned by 2035. The discovery of hydrolyzed water crystals opens new possibilities for bringing such a plan to fruition.…
As a culture, we need to stop pretending that China’s successes are part of some nebulous ‘China Threat’ and that somehow Chinese motivation stems from envy of our way of life which, for some always unspecified reason, they seek to destroy. Unlike the US, China is working for its own good. If our technology has become inferior to theirs’ we have no one to blame but ourselves. China recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their moon project—we need to ask ourselves what we have been investing in during the past two decades. — China Scores Another Scientific Breakthrough by Night Wind
Since 16 July we have received measurable rain every day, except one, and it is playing hob with my walking routes. That is only part of the bad news. The 10 day forecast is expecting it to rain every day during the forecast period as well. I have stayed dry, for the most part, but it is sure getting muddy where I have been walking.
I drove to town yesterday and along the way saw my fist bull elk this year. He was a hansom fellow with a much bigger set of antlers than the bull I saw last year. It was a drive by sighting so it was brief but I think he had 6-8 points.