Short of hiring someone else to do it, there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to tackle a job like this. The trunks have to be cut into logs; the logs have to be moved and stacked; the limbs have to be dragged and piled. Lots of lifting and walking, up and down the hill.
Author Archives: Steve Mays
Josh Stevens thinning trees
Josh Stevens clearing trees on our three acres. (5 min)
Clearing Trees (Part 1)
Stephen Fry on God
George Kopp: Quadcopters
Earlier this week I posted video of the Missouri State Capitol, shot from a drone piloted by my friend George Kopp. There were some good questions in the comments so sat down with George a couple of days ago to get some answers. He’s been playing with quadcopters for the last year and a half and has learned a great deal. In this 18 minute chat he talks about the evolution of the devices; controls; fly aways; no-fly zones; pricing; flying times and range; and regulations.
GoPro Hand Stabilizer Kit
At $740 this little doodad is pricey (and it doesn’t come with a camera!) But if you want that smoooth, flowing video, this is the gadget you need. Gadget Guru George Kopp ‘splains.
Drone video of Missouri State Capitol (George Kopp)
Shot from DJI Inspire quadcopter by George Kopp.
Barb rubs elbows with celebs
If you write a nice check (for a good cause) you get your picture taken with the celebrities. (Barb 2nd from the left; the lady in the middle is Pam, a high school friend).
The artists appearing with Sheryl Crow were pretty much unknown to me. I knew their fathers but haven’t followed their careers. And they play country music. “Redneck Country” in the case of Noll Billings, singer for Blackjack Billy. Looks like David Nail had a #1 song in 2012. They all have wikipedia pages if you’re curious. Blackjack Billy; Trent Tomlinson; David Nail
I assume it’s damned hard to make it in the music business so it does seem noteworthy that four kids from a small (10,000) town in southeast Missouri managed to do so well.
Panpsychism
The dizzying notion that everything in the universe might be conscious, or at least potentially conscious, or conscious when put into certain configurations. […] It is the argument that anything at all could be conscious, providing that the information it contains is sufficiently interconnected and organised. The human brain certainly fits the bill; so do the brains of cats and dogs, though their consciousness probably doesn’t resemble ours. But in principle the same might apply to the internet, or a smartphone, or a thermostat.
This is one tiny part of a longer, broader look at The Hard Problem (Consciousness). If this is your thing I recommend this piece by Oliver Burkeman.
A Walk Among the Tombstones
I’m a big fan of the Matthew Scudder novels of Lawrence Block. So I cringed a bit when I saw someone had made a movie based on the character. With Liam Neeson no less. In all fairness, I thought the first Taken movie was a pretty good flick and I didn’t see the sequals. I just didn’t see him as Matthew Scudder. But damned if I didn’t enjoy every minute of this movie.
The name Scott Frank (director) didn’t ring a bell but he wrote Minority Report; The Wolverine; Marley & Me; Out of Sight; Get Shorty. The last two being among my favorites. Turns out the guy can direct, too.