Latitude 38 has something on cargo under sail. The BBC with an interesting article on battery tech, and John Scalzi has a new guitar...
We live in a polarized society and, for me at least, it's crazy making.
The thing is, I'm not talking about the fact that the worlds politics are polarized (which they are) but how a polarized mindset tends to get in the way of progress in things like boat design and suchlike.
Take sailing rigs for instance... I can't actually remember the last time I came across an open-minded discussion of various sail rigs. Nope, it's more of a this rig is good and all other rigs are bad kind of vibe when talking about rigs. Which leaves folks like me who tend to think that all rigs make sense but also have their strengths as well as weaknesses out of the dialog. It's not a good or bad question we're dealing with but a what rig would make the most sense in a given situation sort of thing.
So, hardly surprising, having mentioned something about the junk rig on the blogs, that I now have a lot of mail both pro-junk and anti-junk as well as a few emails which are a lot more interesting on the subject of how junk rigs might be improved as well as some ideas relating to other rigs that might be incorporated to improve the junk rig.
The problem with both the pro-junk and anti-junk contingents is that they are both stuck in a rut and have very little to bring to the party as well as being kind of boring in the process.
The current conundrum that I'm dealing with is not really about the junk rig but more a way for home builders and DIY gear folks to build sails themselves in an affordable and less problematic way. In actuality it's not a junk or sail issue as it's more of a whole rig big picture issue.
A big problem with the polarization of thought is that one quickly loses the ability to see the "Big Picture" which is a much needed component of progress.
Anyway, I'll continue to mine my current obsession, which might very well be barren, and we'll see how it goes.
More on the subject as it develops.
Listening to …And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead
So it goes
