Tunnel Vision

Well, there's always a huge wad of chewing gum, stuck to everyone's shoes at the same time, so that people would have to grab the sleeve of the person next to them,to steady themselves,while they try to remove.....you get the mind picture...it would be better than the "Hands across the World" from some years back....hard to get in someone's face on one foot.     Just sayin'

I've often though that Kinko's should have its own closed circuit sort of network television. Everybody in all the Kinko's outlets in the world would be able to see everybody else in every other Kinko's in the world. You get the idea. We could call it... Paper View.

I'm here all week! Try the veal.

you know, with the Pink Panther on BBCA, and fresh limes for my vodka concoctions, I am a happy camper

Korthal!   You're  resurrected  from  the  virtually  dead.  Welcome  back.....but  don't  let  it  happen  again.

good morning all!  natural is the only green way to go.
 
http://www.fs.fed.us/oonf/ozark/recreation/caverns.html
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanchard_Springs_Caverns
 
how about the texas caverns...(not taverns)......i don't think those tunnels are natural though.

Bringing people closer together is a mixed bag....

It's hard to hate a lady with five kids while they live in Uganda, cooking at home and selling the food alongside a road near Kampala. It's easy to hate the same lady when she moves from Uganda to Houston, cooks in her garage, and sells to other Ugandans who visit her home all day long to buy what she has cooked. That's the big flaw with bringing humans closer.

It's impossible to know how much envy is created by television.... but imagine being broke, with your kids eating once a day, and with your wife suffering from chronic malaria -- and with no money for medications. Now imagine visiting the local bar to drown your sorrows in a can of precious beer with your mates and seeing 'Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous' on the screen.

I once had a friendship with a woman from Switzerland. Then I learned her net worth was $36 million, and that her favorite thing was $2,000 pairs of boots. It was hard to see what I could do for her, and I had to censor a lot of what I would have otherwise said, since it now seemed 'silly'. (Imagine telling her how much my internet bill came to, or discussing the relative reliability of various makes of automobiles.) She is an admirable person in many ways, but only through the magic of the internet could we learn to fathom the gulf that divides us... on a personal level. Emotionally.

Now, tunnels are another thing!  Fascinating things, possibly because most humans earliest journey was through a tunnel (from the uterus into blinding sunlight).  I've had a fascination with caves since I was a kid, so maybe/maybe not....  In any event, anyone who has climbed over a mountain, or crossed a stormy sea has to have thought: 'Wow, if there were a tunnel here, I could zip across, hidden and safe, unexposed.'  (Why is it we never consider the risk of earthquake while we travel in tunnels... perhaps because we consider rock to be 'safe'?)

Doc  Nolan:  Never  fall  for  a  woman  who  loves  her  Jimmy  Choos  more  than  she  loves  you.
 
As  to  Le  Chunnel,   the  main  reason  why  it  will  never  win  the  award  for  "greatest  modern  engineering  wonder"  is  because  it  works  so  well  that  passengers  are  rocked  to  sleep.  Now  if  Alice  in  Wonderland  had  Entertanment  Television  accompanying  her  journey  through  the  looking  glass,  then  the  thrill  would  be  shared  instantly  with  all,  as  is  today's  instant  gratification  custom,  AND  the  fascination  would  remain  intact.  Up  would  be  down,  black  would  be  white,  heck  maybe  your   teenage  daughter  would  actually  figure  out  how  much  you  actually  LOVE  her,  notwithstanding  her  need  to  trivialize  your  daily  random  acts  of  kindness  supportive  of  that  theory.....lol

living on the new madrid fault zone, and the caverns near by....feeling the regular, even if small at times, rumblings and living below a large dam, does lead me to ponder at times.  i'd rather fly like the birds, than tunnel, as ants do. ppov.  travel by water is especially peaceful to me, a flowing body of energy, always moving.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Madrid_Seismic_Zone
 
we the never, sometimes do, think.

Doc, as usual, you hit the nail on the head.  We would love to see everyone get along, be neighborly, enjoy the good life -- but maybe not everyone especially not in our neighborhood.

The internet has brought more diverse groups together.  We don't know much about the person with whom we're speaking, can enjoy their company and until we find that they're worth "$36 million" (or hold many degrees, or traveled the world many times) we can do it without being intimidated.

hate being a strong word, how is not liking someone because they have money or not, any different than, not liking the color of their skin, or that they are "skinny" and your not and/or, can just eat anything, different political views, etc.....same principle, different objects of discrimination and jealousy or hatred.  when did personal preference become a public discussion..enter politics....word is close to police......sounds almost like a religious belief that's there's only one way.....?  tunnel vision as oppossed to spectra vision?

Andy,  I  just  am  not  sure  that  Doc  Nolan  &  you  are  correct.....first  of  all,  any  woman  from  next  door  willing  to  cook  for  me  and  sell  me  breakfast  on  weekends  is  a  welcome  neighbor,  I  truly  hate  the  cleanups  that  gourmet  breakfasts  necessarily  entail.   And  I  remember  vividly  and  recently  that  the  Brits  seem  to  do  a  much  better  job  than  we  do,  tolerating  the  racial  and  cultural  diversity  that  admittedly  flawed  immigration  policies  have  causes.  I  know  there  are  reactionary  skinhead  gangs,  I  know  some  lunatic  fringe  Muslims  still  think  that  bombs  can  solve  our  differences,  but  regular  people  subway  together,  shop  together,  work  together,  and  peacefully  agree  to  disagree  together.  Cosmopolitan,  but  not  in  the  eliteist  sense  that  the  magazine  of  the  same  name  connotes.  jmo.

Feats of Engineering? Fitting topic this morning considering that I'm off to Washington D.C., a city built on a swamp. See you guys Friday! 

Feets  of  Engineering?   Earth  Shoes!

Wood shoes. Primitive, and then again,newly discovered for comfort. Go figure! Earth shoe sandals from my wife hyperflexed my knee while standing and watching the forf-o-july parade in our small town. Sadly, I did like them up until then.

i like the bankhead tunnel & george wallace tunnel in mobile,ala.....cause the redneck riveria is but a few away!! 
 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankhead_Tunnel
 
if you turn right you end up in new orleans...where maybe they should build a tunnel to houston..

Kristina:   !Exactamente!

       
 
 
 Wormhole....that would be the ultimate tunnel. would certainly make my commute easier.

see:
1.9 Mcd - ARKANSAS

Preliminary Earthquake Report

Magnitude
1.9 Mcd

Date-Time

17 Aug 2009 04:30:56 UTC
16 Aug 2009 23:30:56 near epicenter
16 Aug 2009 22:30:56 standard time in your timezone

Location
35.945N 90.093W

Depth
17 km

Distances

10 km (6 miles) NE (44 degrees) of Manila, AR
11 km (7 miles) NNW (334 degrees) of Dell, AR
11 km (7 miles) S (170 degrees) of Hornersville, MO
93 km (58 miles) N (353 degrees) of Memphis, TN
299 km (186 miles) S (177 degrees) of St. Louis, MO

Location Uncertainty
Horizontal: 0.9 km; Vertical 1.0 km

Parameters
Nph = 37; Dmin = 8.0 km; Rmss = 0.12 seconds; Gp = 118°
M-type = Mcd; Version = A

Event ID
NM hnw0817a

For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

Center for Earthquake Research and Information
U.S. Geological Survey
University of Memphis

http://webmail.windstream.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Ffolkworm.ceri.memphis.edu

Thanks for the welcome back, BERT.
 
 

Tunnels, to me, are as bad as or worse than bridges.
 
I've kind of got the bridges down, now I just have to work on the tunnels.
 
 

I agree with KRISTINA travel gets you out of your comfort zone and more aware of the other people you come in contact with allowing for a new kinship and togetherness.

Travel is terrific for expanding horizons and making us more accepting of other cultures but why don't we try starting right here at home - where charity is alleged to begin?  How many of us know our entire block of neighbors?  
 
So here's my absurd idea for bringing people closer together - the We Are The World Act.  All new houses built must have front porches that will seat at least four adults comfortably.  Existing homes can receive a substantial tax deduction for adding same.
 
 

korthal, i agree.  for me it's the living breathing planet we live on, also.  sorta like riding and gliding on a living breathing, bucking freefall through space......a tunnel to the big black hole?  lovin it...

  
 
 
 
 
 another benefit in living where i do....we know all of our neighbors( and are related to many of them...hahaha) several times a year. someone of us has a party...invites go in all of the mailboxes. new neighbors are quickly absorbed into the fold.

why, that's what this is! a party! with invitations to come sit,and tell.

   
 one of my favorite songs...The tunnel of love....
both of them
 
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEpLsooMJ0
 
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MygwRml8K0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWCKy399aSo&feature=related
 
 
 
 
 

Chunnel topic leads to Uganda and the birth canal, Michael Jackson and wormholes, world travel and earth shoes, earthquakes and puns....you are all amazingly insightful and quick-witted!  I imagine this is what it was like sitting at the children's table at the Algonquin, learning from those who had already mastered both intelligent thought and glorious words.  I'll add a reference to SNL and Garth -- I am not worthy!

    
 
 
 
 
 
The Train of Thought leads to who knows here in this Time Tunnel

Why, it's all clear now, we have been down the rabbit hole......Alice,oh   Alice.....

In Jasper Fforde's books, there is a tunnel through the earth, from London to Sydney, I think.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde

 
 
 
 
http://www.physorg.com/news114261423.html
 
 
 
 

Shandonista:  Is  that  a  real  program?  Because  fences  may  make  good  neighbors,  but  so  do  porches.  When  I  was  a  kid,  everybody  knew  everybody  else,  and  their  problems,  and  their  kids'  problems......and  nobody  was  alone  in  the  lifeboat,  metaphoriclly  speaking.  Maybe  we  should  also  compel  everyone  to  eat  together  coupla  three  times  a  week...picnic  tables,  different  people  every  time.  You  don't  just  start  wars  at  the  drop  of  a  hat,  when  you  appreciate  full  well  that  the  other  country's  people  are  the  same  as  us....

Hug Point on the Oregon coast, where, before tunnels existed out my way, there were ruts dug by wheels as they pounded through high winter surf on the headlands. Seeing is believing! Never met a tunnel yet that gave me that sort of sense of uncertainty.

Comfortable  One:  Don't  forget  "deranged!"  Because  even  though  I  officially  speak  only  for  myself  I  have  to  tell  you  that  I  am  a  full  two  bubbles  off  plumb...and  proud  of  it...lol   Welcome  to  democracy  at  the  insane  asylum.
 
 

 
 
 
 
just follow that light to the end of the tunnel....
 ( the one otherwise known as the GI tract)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEuUdNaU7zc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkaO2wgccX0&feature=related
 
my carpel tunnel is bothering me today...

Bert, is the opposite of that the "sane" asylum?

   
 
 
 
 
 actually the picture obove could be the interior of Monstro the whale.

or the London underground,or the Chicago,or New York subway system.So to change the subject,for a musical interlude that I had never before seen    www.livefromdarylshouse.com

Almost half a century ago, I don't think there was anyone who could have imagined that the technologies being developed, in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, would have had such a tremendous hand in bringing all of us closer together. Yet, here we are, right now, each and every one of us sitting in front of our computers, scattered all over the world, brought closer together by the Internet.

I can vividly remember waiting for over 10 weeks, back in the late 1970's, to receive a letter from my husband deployed on a U.S. Navy ship in the Indian Ocean; at a time when it was necessary to rendezvous with an Aircraft Carrier for mail to be sent and delivered. I endeavored not to complain as I would think back to the many wives and sweethearts throughout history that waited literally years without word from their loved ones that went to sea. Today, with satellites and Internet video-teleconferencing, it's even possible for deployed soldiers to interact with their spouses, right in the delivery room, to be present at the birth of their child in real time. What a wonderful way to bring people closer together!

Dr. Michio Kaku has written what I find to be a fascinating book entitled "Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel." It investigates the possibilities and probabilities of the development of such concepts as teleportation machines, invisibility, telepathy, starships, and time travel.

In contemplating how different and isolated our lives would be without all the seemingly "absurd ideas" that have come before, my conclusion is that we'd still be living in the Dark Ages. No one can predict what the future holds, but I hope there is never a lack of human imagination, investigation and invention, and I strongly feel that it is imperative not to have tunnel vision!

"Whatever one man is capable of conceiving, other men will be able to achieve." ~ Jules Verne

Birthday celebrations can bring people together:                                              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_O%27Hara  

Kindlee, I still covet my own Mother's admonition:"don't,you could hurt yourself".And I am sure T.Edison's Mom said more or less the same thing, the first time he was about to plug in the light (yes, I know plugs had not been yet invented,but I get a poet's pass)

Maybe it's because I remember my Dad telling us on stormy nights when our apartment building seemed to tremble with the loud claps of thunder or because of the semi-frequent air raid drill sirens that would suddenly be set off; that we were so lucky that we lived on the top floor of our building instead of on the first floor ‘cos we would just land on top of everyone else instead of the other way around. 

We kids bought that story hook, line and sinker. I believe my mom was a bit more skeptical of that reasoning since she was the one that raised six kids in that top flat and carried loads of dirty laundry downstairs to the basement and wet clean laundry upstairs to be hung out to dry on clothes lines that stretched across the courtyard all those years.

Regardless of the why of things, I would much rather travel across a great bridge who's span was such that it disappeared in the clouds than to go though an underground tunnel who's interior has never witnessed sunlight nor a natural breath of fresh air.

As long as I'm still alive and above ground, that's where I prefer to be. Even when I blink out, I want my ashes to be scattered above ground.

When I was a kid we used to take the "EL" train (elevated train) / Subway downtown all the time. I was always the happiest when we would be racing through the light at the end of the tunnel and up the trestles.

Peace out

   
 
 
 
 Dead on kindlee....
 
 
Willie Trask....
I and my Hubbie love the movies with Maureen and the Duke....McLintock and the Quiet Man come to mind...Although I don't like the twinkle in his eye when Maureen gets her spanking...

Kristina - 
Like Jim Haynes or "aux chein lunatiques" we could all benefit from the company of strangers. 
I am reminded of an ancient celtic poem:
 
I saw a stranger today
I put food for him in the drinking place
Drink in the drinking place
Music in the listening place
He blessed myself and this house
my food and my family.
And the lark said in her warble
Often, often, often
Goes Christ in the guise of the stranger
Oh oft and oft and oft
Goes Christ in the guise of the stranger.
 
 -A rune of Hospitality 
 
http://goeurope.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=goeurope&cdn=travel&tm=38&gps=229_152_1010_510&f=20&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.jim-haynes.com/
 
http://goeurope.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ/Ya&sdn=goeurope&cdn=travel&tm=183&gps=120_155_1010_510&f=20&tt=14&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//monsite.wanadoo.fr/chienlunatique/

 Todays topic of incredible machinery reminds me of this.Two very distinguished scientists were discussing just that; which of todays marvels was the most impressive. One adamantly clung to the simple wheel,saying without its introduction,man would still be foot bound over great distances.The other man of letters claimed it was electricity;without which,even the wheel would not be of much value. Overhearing this,the library's janitor spoke right up,interrupting their dicussion,being that he was in that library every day,and surrounded with the books containing all of the worlds greatest machines."Gentleman,"he said"the greatest invention ever,is the thermos bottle;in the morning I put in hot tea,and all day,on the coldest day,it stays hot.""And in the summer,I fill it with ice cold lemonade,and all day it is cold and refreshing."   "How is that such a remarkable invention?,"chorused the men of letters, to which the janitor said      "how does it know?"

Kindlee:  Classy   post,   girl.    Always   like  your  unique  perspective.
 
Road  Yacht:   Sane  Asylum?   It  is  the  polar  opposite  of  an  Insane  Asylum.   For  me  it  is  any  one  of  a  dozen  or  so  small  bookstore/coffee  shop/music  &  theatre  places,  in  5  countries  and  about  a  dozen  cities.  It  is  where   thoughtful  people  scurry  away  from  the  rat  race  that  gobbles  up  our  individual  and  collective  sanities.  You  get  a  gentle  flute,   your  favorite  bold  coffee   organic,  fair  trade},  and  BOOKS...including  the  people  fluent  in  spontaneous  review  of  them.  Yup...my   "Sane  Asylum."

Bridges and tunnels.  Maybe John Peterman could come up with another one of my pet  phobias to scare me away from the board.
 
Holy moses, everybody knows bridges don't work, they are a figment of our imagination and only korthal and I seem to be aware of it -- as for tunnels, or yeah sure right, they might work for a while, but like bridges and a stiff wind or a crack in the piling, one of these days that tunnel's going to spring and leak and oh my goodness what a mess that will be.
 
I won't be there though, I'll be right here on terra firma where the Supreme
Whoever meant for me to be.  And stay.
 
I think I better go lay down in a dark room for 10 minutes or until you're done discussing the Chunnel.
 
<exit me>

*spring A leak*
 
 
I'm so overwrought I can't even type.
 
 
<exit me, again>

  
It is an interesting thing that some gummint biniss requires you to show up and  queue up somewhere and doesn't care who you are.

I was in such a line when a voice behind me expressed a little impatience. A funny I-just-swallowed-a-kazoo voice that Samuel Beckett would have called: "A stain upon the silence."

"You are completely screwed if you're behind me pal," I said, and pointing to a young woman's incredibly distended abdomen, added: "That kid will be on solid food before I get out of here."

Several people cringed causing me to turn and see a very Fulton J. Sheen, monsignor looking catholic prelate in, I guess you would say, full vestment.

Maybe he was between one bit of church business and another or maybe he came in that walking the halls of The Vatican get-up to see if it might work in his favor.

Since nothing bores me more than boredom and I had been slightly less than graceful, I decided to see if it were possible to grease the skids under the old guy preferably in a way that wouldn't require him to speak any more than necessary.

Loudly offering to give up my spot in line if others would do likewise, negotiations were undertaken. We had six places to knock off and the first couple were easy. Then, some deals were struck among interested parties in one of the other lines.

It boiled down to one crabby Ellis Island huddled masses looking guy who announced in a thick accent: "I am agnostic and I don't give no krep."

A lady seated in a row of chairs reminded him: "You need a ride home don't you Leo?" and, when he relented, the place erupted in applause- even the functionaries behind the windows. It was great.

That then, is my recipe for the creation of togetherness: A large group of impatient enemies of the state willing to forego their own convenience in the furtherance of a bit of thoughtfulness and fun.








 

RoadYacht - ah yes, that would be the Thomas A. Edison that said "Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something!" I used to read his biography aloud as an inspiration to my middle son; being that neither one of them was a good student. Edison's mom pulled him out of public school and taught him at home. She had great faith in her son's abilities and he later said of her that "My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint." It's incredible the things people can accomplish in their life when they feel like someone truly believes in them and they, in turn, come to believe in themselves.
 
PeterLake - My mother tells a different story...her father always told them that they were lucky to live on the first floor, instead of up high with a view, because if there was ever a fire they could get out easily, whereas the people living on the upper floors of the building would have trouble getting out...many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view...

Front porches, steps or stoops are great places and ways to meet your neigborhood.   If you want a good away game, benches are like magic.  The right bench in the right location is very fertile ground for spontaneous conversations that go well beyond killing time with polite conversations with perfect strangers.The kind of exchanges that you find yourself reflecting upon hours, even days later. Peace out to you all

Kind of like Forrest Gump, PeterLake.  I've wished I sat down on a bench and alongside me sat Forrest Gump, or an equally fascinating person with a story to tell, starting in the middle or the beginning or the end, just a story like Forrest told every person who sat down next to him.
 
I love stories, short or long, just so the teller believes in what he's telling. 
 
And benches, and porches, they lend themselves to the telling of a story as well as any other places I can think of.
 
Good thought there, Mr. PeterLake.

The summer before 6th Grade, my parents took us on an Amtrak trip to California.  We passed through Colorado, which has many many tunnels.  During one, the gentlemen in charge of our car told us all to touch the windows while we went through the tunnel.  He told us, if we were very quiet and concentrated, we'd be able to feel a pain as we went through.
 
I had to explain to my mother years later that it wasn't a "pain" we were feeling by touching the windows, but a "pane". 
 
Evil, evil Amtrak persons!  And then, the Coloradans mooned us!

Tunnels do make me a little nervous; especially those that are under water -- I just keep looking for that single little drip......
 
Ever since Stephen King wrote (and I read, and read and read again) The Stand when everyone is trying to escape New York via the tunnel and they're all kind of stuck there -- tunnels have made me even more than a little nervous.  Doesn't stop me -- but I always remember that vivid scene as he wrote it.

Andy,

Thanks for the mental prod....... I just added The Stand to my re-read list. It's been awhile since I enjoyed that seven course meal.

I think tunnels and mine shafts have become the most frequently deployed character in the horror genre. I believe they have even surpassed haunted houses, crypts and killer clowns.

Just for the heck of it all, I once decided to determine the shortest line between my home in Houston, Texas, and my son's home outside of Tokyo.... no, not the shortest route ON the surface... the shortest route.... i.e. a tunnel.  It was more mathematically challenging than I'd thought and then -- when I thought I'd figured it out -- I kept coming up with strange variations.  It took a while to figure out that the differences were due to the fact the world isn't round... it's sort of squashed down flat a little bit.  I gave up my calcululations at that point given my 'challenged' math abilities -- but the process made me feel a little bit closer to my family members (albeit only theoretically).  The plane trip still take 13 hours...

  
A cabbie and I found it very interesting that my wife was able to continue a cell phone conversation at least a couple of blocks into the Midtown tunnel in NYC.

Probably, if it had been an emergency...  

My early connection to tunnels was visiting grandma and my aunts in Brooklyn, NY.... Over the Pulaski Skyway (burrowing through the clouds of smoke generated by burning garbage), under the Hudson River in the Holland Tunnel (all yellow, and dingy and damp and poorly lit), then across lower Manhatttan (between Chinatown and Little Italy), and then over the Manhattan Bridge (carrying subway trains, and with the Brooklyn Bridge 500 yards to our right). ---- We did this trip at least twice a month for years and years....  And on the way home as kids, we'd doze sleepily gaze from the back seat of the station wagon, up, up..... peering up at the moon and the stars as we whizzed along over water and under it for the hour and a half to our beds...

I only crossed the English Channel once -- on a ferry.  It seems strange to think that humans are shuttling way 'down there' back and forth, like ants.  But when I read about the mining of castle walls by the Romans (and during the Middle Ages), it seems incredible.... And then there are the tunnels of Chuchi... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BB%A7_Chi_tunnels ;

Tunnels are engineering marvels...tis true...especially the Chunnel or Le tunnel sous la Manche. Tunnels are intrinsically romantic, take a gondola ride under an Italian tunnel, for example. In the Pacific Northwest we have tunnels dynamited through basalt rock. Our tunnels run throughout the city...tunnels which bring people and their work places together ...tunnels which bring lovers together kissing in the darkness. A kiss in a dark tunnel would improve my day. I think I'll start a "kiss in a tunnel" petition to bring people together.  ____________sign here.

I can now see the light within the tunnel, not just at the end...... there's always another perspective to consider.  Well done Penn!

In much the same spirit that some will set out to visit all of Oregon's covered bridges, I will volunteer to sign Penn's petition. I would add that all kisses ought to be done with the automobile's top down, and at full stop in each of Oregon's tunnels. What are the word's to "Daring Night" that apply here? Are there volunteers to sign the amended petition? If there be any, sign here:___________.