I discovered this in an antique shop and thought it was interesting enough to merit sharing with my dear readers… This bottle, made during the Prohibition era, was designed to look like a piece of wood so that it could be hidden in a pile of firewood or the equivalent: For my foreign readers that … Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket is fairly picky about contributions from correspondents as most of the proposals we receive are either not relevant, not original material (in other words, just a repost of material that has already been published elsewhere), or not particularly interesting. Fortunately, we also receive some gems from time to time, such as that … Continue reading
I had intended the most recent post on Xinjiang to be my last on the subject. I considered “The War For Xinjiang” to be the culmination of the series of posts on that region and I thought I would be moving on to other places and topics… However, the volume of harassment and threats I … Continue reading
“I only eat predators.” That was how the girl seated next to me started the conversation when the airline began serving us our food. She used that attention-getting line to launch into a condemnation of our entire food system. It was her position that when it comes to meat, she will never eat herbivores – … Continue reading
Having just returned from a backpacking trip where I pushed myself quite hard, I have been pondering the issue of proper packing quite a bit in recent days… When backpacking, one has to make a cost/benefit decision regarding weight versus comfort for every single item. Everything one brings is something that adds to the overall … Continue reading
These were taken from a flight making its way to London from Calgary… We were along the edge of Hudson Bay – north of Churchill and at about the same latitude as Yellowknife – when the sun started to rise and I took these pictures: Any time I fly over the Arctic regions, I am … Continue reading
Although risk-taking has negative aspects and can even prove fatal, it is a positive force as well. Without risky experiences, humanity would stagnate; there would be little impetus for discovery. Risk-taking was obviously adaptive in earlier hominids. The trait persists—but there is little left to explore. What is more, work is anything but exciting for … Continue reading
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