de Tocqueville's First Editor

 My first go at cartooning.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dreams Come True, History's End, and Other Illusions

  Francis Fukuyama famously declared in the early '90s that we had reached the end of history. The end of Soviet communism and the triumph of liberal democracy was humankind's last great struggle, and it was a done deal. Watching the horrifying events of 6 January, 2021 unfold, I reflected on the prematurity of Fukuyama's conclusion. Liberal democracy's triumph is far from assured, humankind still have plenty of struggles left, and there's still a whole lot more history to be made. It can be tempting to think of history as a great sweeping arc of change and development that existed for the sole purpose of bringing us to this one static moment when nothing much else happens, but it's an illusion. If you view a small enough section of a curved line or surface, the curvature goes away. This is why the surface of the earth appears flat to an observer near the ground. It's not just a limitation of perception; it is a practicality within defined cases. A Formula O
Read more

Best. Activation. Ever.

Image
  Let's get this out of the way first. It was the most challenging Parks on the Air (POTA) activation I've ever done. Challenging to the point of unpleasant—dare I say, pain in the ass. For starters, it took an inordinate amount of time to find a combination of antenna and tuner setup that would get the SWR under 3. Once I got on the air, responses to my QRP CQs were slow in coming, so much so that I was facing the very real possibility that darkness or a dead battery would set in before I reached the requisite ten contacts. After a few contacts, I noticed that my lightweight, entry-level straight key that I take with me on backpack-portable activations felt funny. I took a closer look at the key and realized that a stress fracture had developed in the arm between the tension spring and the contacts. What was making my key return when I eased up between dots and dashes was not the tension spring, but the memory in the arm, its tendency to return to its original molded shape aft
Read more

Standing Watch

Image
 " PAN-PAN PAN-PAN PAN-PAN. This is sailing vessel SERENE HORIZON. I am taking on water about five miles outside Two Harbors and might need assistance." I barely had time to settle into my desk chair at United States Coast Guard Station Los Angeles/Long Beach. The latte that I grabbed on the way at Common Room Roasters is still nearly full. The scratch paper that I'll be taking notes on doesn't yet have a mark on it—at least not on the side that I'll be using. I'm using a couple of repurposed log sheets that I took to Dockweiler State Beach on my most recent Parks on the Air activation for scratch paper. The flip side of each sheet contains the call signs of twenty or so amateur radio stations that I worked the previous weekend. "Vessel in distress, this is COAST GUARD SECTOR LOS ANGELES. Say again your vessel name and the nature of your distress." I'm getting it all down—more neatly than I usually do—on an otherwise pristine sheet of scratch pa
Read more