LavaCon 2026 and the future.

-
Image
LavaCon is a conference now going on 25 years. Its always fun at conferences where folks collaborate on what the future holds. This year I drove to Charlotte NC from Duluth GA to attend. I used the Tesla in Full Self Drive. I went park-to-park without touching the wheel for over 200 miles. It's crazy. I don't think most people understand how well it works. Lots of nay-sayers still, but it really does work. Be on guard, but enjoy. I spent some of my time "driving" while conversing with Grok as part of my daydreaming. I was discussing with Grok an idea I have of building a West system (cold molded) old style barrel-back runabout maybe 20 feet long- all varnished Mahogony. Of course this boat would have an exotic 12-cylinder engine under a transparent engine hatch between the twin cockpits. We discussed the designs, available actual study plans and pre-lofted design documents for the hull. We also discussed the best engine (perhaps a BMW N73) coupled with a Velvet Dri...
Post a Comment

Southern Africa!

-

I was successful getting to all 8 countries I planned.

South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, and Namibia.

The trip was 14 days with 13 flight segments. The shortest flight was 15 minutes in an ultralight and the longest flight 16+ hours. I rented a 4x4 in Lesotho and another in Namibia.

Among many other things in my travels, I walked across the Victoria Falls bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe and took an ultralight aircraft ride over the same bridge and falls.

Namib Desert from the air. Look for my 4x4.

Skeleton Coast

Heart of Namid desert near uranium mine


Maputo, Mozambique-- City Hall and Samora Machel statue

Maseru, Lesotho-- I was delayed at the airport leaving Lethoto by about three hours. I had to find a nother hotel in Namibia since I wasn't going to drive after dark. The delay was caused by the Airport being shut down because of an expired battery in the airport fire truck. We had to wait to get a new battery. After the battery was installed, the fire truck drove around the airport and you could feel the sighs of relief of the airport reopening. There are only three flights to/from Masuru a day. All from Jo'burg. No concessions to speak of and no soap or toilet paper in the restroom.

Maseru, Lesotho-- View from the best hotel in the city during the golden hour. Great scenery in Lesotho.

Zambia-- checkpoint around National Park

Zambia

Eswatini

Eswatini

Eswatini

South Africa

Namibia-- Namib Desert

Namibia-- Namib Desert

Zambia

Zambia

Zambia

Zambia









































Comments

David Schinsing said…
I think some of those places are the "shithole" countries, right?
10:56 AM
Don Bridges said…
No "shithole" countries, just "shithole" people.

Welcome back - glad you made it home safely.
7:50 PM
Don Bridges said…
No "shithole" countries, just "shithole" people.

Glad you had a great adventure and made it back safely.

Let me know when we can trade stories (Finland and Estonia were amazing).
7:52 PM
Charles said…
I had some great take-aways after meeting with different folks across the eight countries. Generally, these eight countries are declining in most of the of indices associated with a good civilization. (See CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX, for example). I had several people indicate to me that racism is not an issue. It certainly was. Now it has much less to do with race and much more to do with class and caste issues. With all the languages spoken, 11 official languages in South Africa. Language can be better tied with a social class or caste than race. Fascinating stuff. I realize that "caste" is generally reserved for use with hindis, but the concepts are observed in sub-Saharan Africa with multigenerational occupations.
6:35 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

-
It doesn't seem like it has been a week since I last blogged. Apparently it has been. I have joined the 1990s! I now have a cell phone along with Bonnie. We got Tracfones which are prepaid PCS type digital phones. It works at the house so that is great. Coverage is pretty good. Out here coverage is a big deal and something you cannot take for granted. I am doing a NPV analysis of the prices over minutes over time to ensure I am getting the best deal. Homework is taking quite a bit of my time. I am learning a lot about finance. This week we did regressions for portfolio analysis of beta among other financial models including Fama-French and emerging financial behavioral models. We have ducks! I picked them up Friday. Currently we have 8 ducks. Liz and Ken will take 5 leaving us with two hens and a drake. They are young mallards. I leared how to clip their wings as to not let them fly away. They are quite nervous still. I hope they settle down. They are really uptight. The chi...
Read more

LavaCon 2026 and the future.

-
Image
LavaCon is a conference now going on 25 years. Its always fun at conferences where folks collaborate on what the future holds. This year I drove to Charlotte NC from Duluth GA to attend. I used the Tesla in Full Self Drive. I went park-to-park without touching the wheel for over 200 miles. It's crazy. I don't think most people understand how well it works. Lots of nay-sayers still, but it really does work. Be on guard, but enjoy. I spent some of my time "driving" while conversing with Grok as part of my daydreaming. I was discussing with Grok an idea I have of building a West system (cold molded) old style barrel-back runabout maybe 20 feet long- all varnished Mahogony. Of course this boat would have an exotic 12-cylinder engine under a transparent engine hatch between the twin cockpits. We discussed the designs, available actual study plans and pre-lofted design documents for the hull. We also discussed the best engine (perhaps a BMW N73) coupled with a Velvet Dri...
Read more
-
Google News I will be moving my server host soon. The place I am using now could screw up anything. That is the reason I have not posted anything (seemingly) for quite some time. The name of the crapper server hosting company is IQuest Hosting. They just plain stink. They bought out the service I was using. Now because of their screw ups I am moving. Avoid "http://www.iquesthosting.com/"
Read more
-
Image
We spent the weekend at home. Managed to get the spa placed. A little bit more to do to get it in use. Having a bobcat comes in handy for sure.
Read more